With the hosts unbeaten at home in the competition, Clement knows his side were close to making history in Lisbon but praised their attitude to come away with the draw leaving the tie in the balance ahead of next Thursday’s second-leg at Ibrox.
Speaking to RangersTV at full-time, the manager said: “They showed a lot of character and the right mentality, a real fighting spirit and in moments also good football with two really good goals.
“If you see the goals we had against, those were unlucky and that is a little bit tough. This evening, we were really really close to doing an exceptional thing because no team has ever won here in the Europa League in their stadium, so we were really close to doing that.”
Tom Lawrence found the target with a header early in the match, with Dujon Sterling netting Gers’ other goal of the evening, his first senior competitive goal.
On Sterling, Clement continued: “Dujon is doing very well, and I know in that position he can be important, score goals and be important for the team. He has shown that again, he is not only good as a full-back or in the midfield, but he can play those positions also.”
Clement handed 21-year-old Cole McKinnon his European debut for the club and said he has been happy with the mentality the youngster has shown.
He explained: “He deserved that moment because of the things he has been showing in training in the last couple of weeks. He is really growing and also because of the injury situation, we had four wingers out.
Ross [McCausland] was not really 100 per cent to play long, or to play enough minutes so it was a risk to put him on, I had to do it at the end. Fabio [Silva] was tired also after playing a really good game. I am really happy with Cole, his mentality and what he has been showing otherwise I wouldn't give chances like that in an important game like that.”
On next week’s second-leg at Ibrox, the manager continued: “I expect a full stadium, a crazy atmosphere, it’s what our supporters can do and that they can give us extra powers.
“You see Benfica are a team with a lot of quality so we need to play a really big game to qualify but with the support of the fans we can do amazing things.”