PHILIPPE Clement has told his Rangers players they will need to emulate Chelsea’s performance in their extraordinary triumph over Manchester United on Thursday night if they want to beat Celtic at Ibrox tomorrow and leapfrog their city rivals into top spot in the cinch Premiership.
The Belgian watched his former players Axel Disasi and Benoit Badiashile, who he worked with when he was in charge at Monaco in France, help the London club to win a dramatic Premier League match at Stamford Bridge in midweek.
Mauricio Pochettino’s team were trailing Erik ten Hag’s side 3-2 deep in injury-time – but Cole Palmer scored in the 100th and 101st minutes to complete his hat-trick and ensure the hosts picked up all three points.
Clement feels his charges have to perform from kick-off until the final whistle and capitalise on their scoring chances in the final third in Govan this weekend to prevail and boost their chances of lifting the Scottish title this season.
READ MORE: Injury uncertainty remains over Rangers ace Ridvan Yilmaz
Asked what the difference had been between the Glasgow clubs at Parkhead in December, he said: “That we didn’t grab the moments and they did. For sure, their second goal was an exceptional goal that I didn’t see that player (Kyogo Furuhashi) do in the rest of the season.
“You know these are the kind of games you need to grab the moments, it is decided in details, it is decided in players making the difference, not only offensive but also defensive. And to be on top of your game, 90 minutes long, 100 minutes long.
“I think a really good example was also yesterday when I was watching my old boys who play for Chelsea now against Man Utd. You see this game was turning side to side scenarios several times during the game because everyone kept on going until the last second.
Clement dismissed suggestions the third Premiership match of the season between Rangers and Celtic was a title decider – but he did concede that it was a “six point game”.
The man who won the Pro-League in his native Belgium three years running, first with Genk and then with Club Brugge, stressed that he is looking forward to the occasion enormously and admitted that he revels in the intensity of football in Glasgow.
READ MORE: Five things Rangers need to do to beat Celtic at Ibrox
“I love it,” he said. “I'm not nervous, I'm excited about it, I'm looking forward to it. This is something you need to embrace, not be nervous about. These are great afternoons. I have a lot of confidence in my squad and I have a lot of confidence in our fans.
“There are challenging moments because you play against a good team who will do their best to beat you and there will be a lot of quality from both sides. But it's the only way also to grow as a player, to have challenges, to have tough games to play against good opponents.
“This is a massive game. If you walk around the town in the next couple of days you will see. Everybody has an opinion about this game. My opinion is that it's fantastic to be a manager in this environment.
“It is an environment where everybody is so passionate about football, where everybody loves football and where everybody is living towards this game. It's a nice place to be so that gives a lot of energy and, as a manager, you don't want anything other than that.”
Meanwhile, Clement has rubbished claims that Callum McGregor, the Celtic captain who is set to return from an injury lay-off against Rangers at Ibrox, controlled the midfield in the Old Firm game at Parkhead back in December.
“I don't agree that he dominated the play at Celtic Park,” he said. “There were moments that he was good on the ball but there were also moments where he wasn't dominating the game. I think my midfielders also dominated the game in moments.
“I saw the first game and it's true he was dominating, but I don't need to say too much about that. He's a very good player and he's somebody with a lot of quality.
“He's really good on the ball and he's really important for their team so it's important to take that strength out of their team and that's one part you need to do, but it's not only about one player.”
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