PHILIPPE CLEMENT insists it is “a good thing” that his Ibrox side will meet Celtic in the Premier Sports League Cup Final at Hampden on Sunday December 15.
Twenty-four hours after the champions had annihilated Aberdeen 6-0 in their one-sided semi-final, the Belgian gaffer saw his team struggle before coming back to overcome Motherwell 2-1 after trailing at the interval.
The pressure has been mounting on Clement in recent times with the Govan outfit trailing Brendan Rodgers’ men and the Dons by NINE points in the Premiership following three defeats and a draw in the first 10 games.
The opportunity to get involved in the money-spinning Champions League was dynamited at the first qualifying stage after losing out to Kyiv Dinamo, including a 2-0 nosedive in Glasgow in the second leg.
MIXED SIGNALS…Philippe Clement has words with skipper James Tavernier.
They have picked up six points from three outings in the Europa League, but were on the receiving end of an embarrassing 4-1 mauling from Lyon at Ibrox last month.
Clement looked into the abyss again at the national stadium yesterday after former Ibrox hero Andy Halliday had given the Fir Park outfit the lead midway through the first-half.
However, the tie turned around when Cyriel Dessers, who missed two glorious opportunities in the opening period, prodded in the equaliser shortly after the break and Nedim Bajrami claimed the untidy winner in the 81st minute with extra-time beckoning.
Celtic, of course, had no such problems as they stormed past the previously unbeaten Pittodrie side with the Parkhead men 3-0 ahead at half-time on their way to a six-goal triumph which was illuminated by a hat-trick from Daizen Maeda and contributions from Cameron Carter-Vickers, Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kuhn.
MAKING A POINT…Philippe Clement issues instructions to his players.
Clement, though, is looking forward to the showpiece confrontation next month and admitted: “It’s a big challenge. The biggest in Scotland. That’s also a good thing. It’s the next step to take to win this Cup again.
“We had that amazing feeling together with the fans last season and we can battle for that again.”
Looking at how the game unfolded against the Fir Parkers, Clement said: “It was probably the worst scenario that you can have, starting the game well, creating chances and then on the first really dangerous ball in the box, you concede.
“But this needs to be also a reference game for this new squad.
“To do what we’ve been doing a lot last season and it’s to dig in and in every situation, to keep our belief, to keep going, to keep fighting if we go behind.
“I want to see every three days this mentality. That’s what we’ve been talking about, but talking is not enough. We need to do it on the pitch.”
The Govan boss, speaking to the Daily Record, continued: “We feel the pressure that we hate to lose, so the pressure is out of ourselves. We want to react. We want to be better. The group showed that. That’s an important thing.
“I can talk about a lot of things, but it needs to happen. They need to feel it also. They can believe in these difficult moments to keep on pushing, to break open the wall of Motherwell with a lot of movement, with a lot of positive aggressivity when we lost the ball.
“Like that, we created a lot of chances. It should have been more. That I want to see much more the next weeks and months.”
END GAME…Philippe Clement and referee Nick Walsh shake hands at full-time.
Clement added: “At half-time, I was calm because I felt that the team was really nervous. They needed the confidence to push to get this 10-15 percent more to get the win.
“That’s what they showed in the second-half. A lot of mentality, but a lot of quality also. You always need to find that balance. If it’s only mentality and you’re only fighting and don’t play good football, we will not reach our goals.
“So, we need to have this subtle balance between the two. That’s what they showed in the second-half. Players stood up. We scored two really good goals.
“That will create a lot of belief for the next couple of months.”
Celtic, of course, may have something to say about that, starting at the national stadium 10 days before Christmas.
