Philippe Clement 'surprised' as UEFA raise concerns over possible Rangers v Liverpool Europa League final

Rangers manager responds to comments made by UEFA general secretary

Rangers manager Philippe Clement during a training session ahead of the Europa League last 16 second leg against Benfica. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Philippe Clement has stressed he has not considered Rangers reaching the Europe League final after UEFA expressed concerns about what it might mean if certain teams reach the showpiece occasion in Dublin in May.

The Ibrox manager admitted he was “surprised” that the governing body had opted to speculate, with Uefa suggesting a Rangers v Liverpool final would offer potential security challenges.

UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis said there were a couple of scenarios, “especially with clubs who already have a large fanbase on the island of Ireland”, where it would be difficult to accommodate all those likely to travel without tickets. Rangers take on Benfica at Ibrox tonight in the second leg of their last 16 tie, with the score delicately balanced at 2-2. Liverpool hold a commanding 5-1 lead over Sparta Prague ahead of their second leg at Anfield.

"There are a couple of pairings – I won't speculate on the names but you are clever enough to work it out – that would be extremely challenging to find ways to accommodate everybody that will be present for that game," said Theodoridis. "We know they will bring a number of supporters without tickets and then there is the issue of potential public viewing venues. We have already reserved Croke Park as a potential public viewing venue, but that could not be enough.”

Clement could not think beyond the decisive second leg encounter against Benfica at Ibrox, with Rangers’ hopes buoyed by the return of Todd Cantwell. The midfielder has been missing since injuring his hamstring against St Johnstone last month. Clement must decide whether to include him from the start or introduce him from the bench.

He gave short shrift to Uefa’s misgivings about unnamed teams playing in a final at a venue already selected by the governing body. “I heard that on the radio and I was surprised that people are thinking about that already,” said Clement. "I think it's still a long, long way to go to think about the final. We have to think about Benfica first.

"We are only thinking about one game at a time. For us, I just need my players to give their best and qualifying tomorrow would be an amazing thing. Nobody would have dreamt about that even two months ago, to quality against a team like Benfica. So let us focus first on that."

Clement has already instructed his players to be shrewder when it comes to on-field incidents after Rangers suffered a contentious penalty decision being awarded against them in last week’s first leg in Lisbon, when the ball came off defender John Souttar’s head before hitting his hand.

“Clearly we saw afterwards that it should not have been a penalty,” said Clement. “It’s clear because it touched John’s head first. But I always try to look at ourselves and what we can do better."

He wants his players to take a leaf out of veteran Portuguese defender Pepe’s book. Clement watched the Porto player employ all of his wiles against Arsenal on in a Champions League last 16 second leg encounter on Tuesday night. The 41-year-old delivered another uncompromising defensive performance although even that was not enough to ensure he finished on the winning side in an epic encounter won by Arsenal on penalties.

“There will be mistakes made outside of us, so I spoke to the team about that," he said. "That’s also experience and I think you have the best example yesterday with Pepe of Porto (v Arsenal). He is 41-years-old and he played 20 seasons in Europe. But if that happens with him in the same situation he would go to the referee and say, ‘it hit my head first and then my arm.’”