PHILIPPE Clement believes it was a ‘positive afternoon’ at Hampden as Rangers defeated Motherwell 2-1 in the Scottish Premiership.
Cyriel Dessers and summer signing Vaclav Cerny were both on the scoresheet in the victory, and the Gers boss was happy with the way his squad started the game.
Speaking to RangersTV at full-time, he said: “It is a well-deserved win, and we wanted to give the fans a really good afternoon. We could have scored more goals, we had enough chances for that, there were a few good saves or shots blocked but I think it was a really positive game.
“From the first minute we took the game in our hands, we created chances, and the fans were behind the team like they always are, so I think it is a positive afternoon so early in the season.
“It is about working on things, it is about explaining things, it is about doing things together and you see we started with two players who are just in the building but who understand the game and so I saw already a lot of positive things from our two signings also, so it is an important game again.”
On Vaclav Cerny, Clement continued: “That is why we got him here, that is the idea to strengthen the squad, and to get players in with quality and experience next to our young boys who also had a really good game.
“Connor Barron for example played a good game in midfield so you see more and more the automatism we try and create. In the second-half we should've score the third goal and then we kill the belief of the opponent and then it is a different end of the game but we didn't give away much or Jack [Butland] didn't have to make too many saves. The team are really hungry to learn to become better, to gel together and to play a really good season so it is an important victory in that way.”
Looking ahead to Tuesday evening’s UEFA Champions League third qualifying round second-leg match against Dynamo Kyiv, Clement added: “It is good to go into that after a victory, it is good for the fans also it gives extra belief. We know it is a really big test against Kyiv because they are a really quality team, and we are going to go full to qualify for the next round.
“We did really good things in Lublin against them, but we also need to learn. There are some things we can make better, so we are going to work on that in the next two days and then to have a terrific European evening here with 50,000 crazy people behind the team. I am counting on that.”