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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Stewart Wilson

Rangers 'deserved' to beat Tottenham as Philippe Clement senses Ibrox mood shift

Philippe Clement couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed despite Rangers securing a credible draw against Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League.

Striker Hamza Igamane put the hosts ahead just 81 seconds into the second half, expertly converting a cross from captain James Tavernier.

However, Spurs' Dejan Kulusevski levelled the score with a well-placed left-footed shot following an impressive team build-up with 15 minutes left to play.

Both teams created opportunities to secure a victory. One of the closest calls came when substitute Cyriel Dessers was thwarted by former Celtic shot-stopper Fraser Forster in the dying moments.

Despite several chances, resolute defending and excellent goalkeeping ensured the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

With this result, both teams now sit on 11 points, placing Rangers in eighth and Tottenham in ninth in the Europa League league phase standings as they vie for an automatic spot in the competition's last 16.


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"The grabbed the challenge with both hands and they showed what we want them to show everybody," the Rangers manager told TNT Sports. "But I still leave now after this game thinking we should have won this game. We deserved to win this game. 

"I think it was a very good advertisement for Scottish football and for sure Rangers to compete against a Premier League team at full strength. Okay, they had some injuries but there was still a lot of quality players on the pitch. 

"Our young guys, our experienced guys, everyone together showed a lot of quality today.

"I want that mentality every week. I saw that they were not satisfied with a point, they wanted to win and they felt also that we were really close to winning this game. We need to keep this hunger and desire for more to become better. 

"Like I've been saying over the last month's and week's, there's a lot of potential in this squad. It's about working with them and getting experiences for them like evening like this. It helps a lot in that way.

"I've said they need to play fast and they need to be more aggressive and react faster, and they all did. It's about keeping this hunger and desire to become better as players." 


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The Ibrox crowd were kept on their feet for large parts of the 90 minutes, and after the relationship between supporters and the squad appeared to turn sour earlier in the season, Clement reckons he's got them back on side again with performances like tonight.

"The synergy is totally back with our fans," the Belgian commented. "They see all the work the team is doing, they see the way we want to play and the way we want to impose our play. It's going to be a massive final against Celtic at Hampden, 50/50 with supporters so everybody is looking forward to that."

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