The Light Blues are in Sweden to face Malmo tomorrow evening in the first of their eight-game league phase schedule.
The club have a rich history in the competition and reached the last 16 under Clement last time out after topping their group.
Speaking to the media ahead of the clash in Sweden, the Gers boss commented: “We were really close last year with Benfica and done a really good Europa League.
“If you compare the qualities that Benfica had, we were really close. We finished first in our group, so you cannot do better than that.
“It will be a challenge to do better, but we’re ambitious and want to do better than before.
“The exciting thing about the project now is that we have a new squad, young guys coming in and having their first taste in European football.
“There are players like Connor [Barron] who are young and had a taste last season; he felt how difficult it can be to combine with domestic football.
“It’s challenging for them and interesting for us to see how fast they adapt to performing every three days. This is now the start of that period.
“We didn’t get any presents with the draw, which is really clear if you compare with the other groups.
“We have a really tough group to qualify out of. It’s the strange thing also, that you have teams in your group who are playing against other teams than you are playing against.
“But we’re going to focus on ourselves game-by-game, going full to get the three points and see what the format brings.”
Tomorrow evening’s clash will be a first Europa League experience for several players in the squad after a summer of change at the club.
Malmo are set to present a stern test for the Gers, with the side sitting at the summit of the Swedish top-flight and well on their way to a second successive league title.
Clement added: “It’s about going full in this game against a very good opponent who play good attacking football and are top of the league.
“Everyone is excited to play this game.
“It’s a new game of football and, of course, we have analysed Malmo really well.
“As a staff with the new formula, you used to have a four-team group stage with three opponents and you analysed those.
“Now it will be about analysing a totally different team, which is a lot more work to do, a lot more challenging, and more interesting for everyone.”