Philippe Clement rues missed chances and believes 4-1 defeat was 'harsh' on Rangers

Rangers boss Philippe Clement believe his side missed “200%” chances to take the lead against Lyon before crashing to a 4-1 Europa League defeat.

Malick Fofana and Alexandre Lacazette scored two goals each as the French side showed their attacking edge at Ibrox, with Tom Lawrence’s early equaliser counting for little as Rangers suffered a bruising loss.

Clement accepted that Lyon had taught his side a lesson in how to finish, and said his side had wasted golden opportunities to score early in the game.

Captain James Tavernier saw his close-range effort saved in the early minutes of the match, before Valclav Cerny blasted a shot over the bar with an open goal at his mercy.

The manager believes that taking those chances would have had Ibrox rocking and put Lyon on the back foot instead of allowing them to assert control.

“I think we started the game with good intentions, with good intensity, with good quality,” Clement said.

“To put fire in the stands to have an amazing European evening and we have two 200% chances. The first two chances of the game.

“So you need to kill them off to get the special European nights. It’s like that against, teams with this quality. You don’t get so many chances. So that’s disappointing.

“And, it’s also disappointing the way we got the goals against with losing balls in the areas that we cannot lose the ball and with, a few times, not, not good defending in the our aggression and in the one against ones against top players. What they’ve shown today, But 1-4 is a really harsh result.”

Clement also explained why he decided to substitute captain James Tavernier for Neraysho Kasanwijro in the second half after a difficult night for the full-back.

“Everybody can be replaced, and he has already played a lot of games, so not much to say about that.

“And Nana showed also last couple of weeks that he can be a really good replacement, and he’s defensively very solid, so those are normal things.

“Like on the other side, players were changed. We’re going to play more than 60 games this season, so it’s impossible to play all these games.”