Rangers reaction: Fall guy verdict given, big injury update, controversial sub explanation

Philippe Clement lamented Rangers' failure to "put fire in the stands” after his profligate Ibrox side fell to 4-1 home Europa League defeat to Lyon.

The Rangers manager’s choice of words might or might not have been inspired by the fireworks that were the reason referee Sven Jablonski was forced to hold up play early in the first half.

Guest Sir Alex Ferguson was looking on as rockets apparently let off from the Copland Stand exploded above the pitch for a spell, with Rangers likely to be the subject of an investigation by Uefa.

The display – and stoppage - might not have influenced the outcome, but three goals were scored in a ragged nine-minute spell directly afterwards.

Rangers manager Philippe Clement speaks to the linesman during the defeat by Lyon. | SNS Group

Rangers winger Vaclav Cerny also missed what was essentially an open goal. Moments later Lyon went ahead through Malick Fofana, the game’s best player at just 19-years-old. Clement rued Cerny’s miss as well as an earlier chance that had fallen for James Tavernier and was well saved by Lucas Perri.

“To put fire in the stands, to have an amazing European evening, and you have two 100 per cent chances, the first two chances of the game, you need to kill them off to get a special European night,” he said. “It's like that against teams with this quality, you don't get so many chances, so that's disappointing. It's also disappointing the way we got goals against with losing balls in the areas where we couldn't lose the ball.

“But 1-4 is a really harsh result. In the end, it's the same amount of chances that both teams have, and we had more in the first half, but it was 1-3 with half-time, and that's the difference in quality. They're killing those moments and don't need many chances to score goals. So it's a big working point for us.

“We did a lot of good things, but the goalkeeper made a really good save for the chance for Tav, but he could have put the ball also sideways, where we have two players totally free to tap the ball in. And Vaclav also has a tap-in for a free goal. I don't think we can do much more than create that kind of chance. I don't think you can create better chances than that, but you need to kill them off also.”|

Rangers return to this stage in three weeks’ time against Steaua Bucharest at Ibrox. They will have to stop gifting goals if they are to progress to the next stage of the competition's new format. “I don't think we had enough people behind the ball in the moments we get goals against, but we need to defend better in these one-against-one moments against top-quality players," said Clement. "They showed their quality today. A quality that we don't face in Scottish football, that's a reality also.”

Rangers' Connor Barron apologises as his error leads to Lyon's Alexandre Lacazette scoring to make it 2-1. | SNS Group

He backed Connor Barron to recover. The 22-year-old midfielder gave the ball away in midfield for Lyon’s second goal, scored by Lacazette. “Yeah, about Bas, I don't have any worries, but like we said, he's still a young lad,” he said. “It’s the first time playing at this level and so many games in a row, so it's normal this season that it will be ups, and he has already a lot of ups, and sometimes a down, that's part of the story.”

Tom Lawrence scored Rangers’ equaliser after 14 minutes, during which he was injured. He was eventually replaced at half time by Kieran Dowell. “He felt something in his hamstring,” explained Clement. “So we could not take a risk with that.”

Clement explained why he replaced Tavernier after just an hour. Neraysho Kasanwirjo took the skipper's place at right back. "Everybody can be replaced," he said. "He had already played a lot of games, so there is not much to say about that. And Nana showed in the last couple of weeks that he can be a really good replacement. He's defensively very solid, so those are normal things. We're going to play more than 60 games this season, so it's impossible to play all these games."