Rangers boss Philippe Clement relishing ‘really big test’ against Tottenham

Philippe Clement is keen to see how his improving Rangers side fare against Tottenham in Thursday’s Europa League clash at Ibrox.

Speaking after a “very clear victory” against Ross County – goals from Hamza Igamane, Danilo and captain James Tavernier secured a 3-0 Premiership triumph in Dingwall – the Belgian turned his attention to the visit of Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs.

“It’s against a team that’s out of our league normally, financially for sure,” said the Belgian, whose side have 10 points from 15 – the same as the north London club – and will consider knockout-stage hopes still very much alive.

“So, it’s the kind of game where you only have things to win. It’s a little bit different situation than the normal games we have, but we’re going to fight.

“It’s really interesting to see with this squad what they can do at that level.

“It’s going to be a first test against a team of that magnitude and that quality of player.

“So, I’m really looking forward to that and you see physically, technically, the team is growing in all the automatisms.

“Now, we’re going to see that against one of the best teams in the world. So, that’s going to be interesting.”

The former Genk, Club Brugge and Monaco boss continued: “You can give every team a contest. My teams did it in the past against really big teams.

“I believe in this team, that there’s a lot of quality and this is just the start of something with this squad.

“So, there’s a lot of potential in the squad if we can keep on working in this way and they keep focused.

“It’s also a really big test against Tottenham, to see where we are at that level.

“So, I’m really looking forward to that, like I was in the past with other teams playing against much bigger teams.”

On Sunday’s win over the Staggies, which took the Govan outfit two points behind second-placed Aberdeen with a game in hand over the Dons and 11 adrift of leaders Celtic, Clement said: “We could have scored more.

“We had several really good attacks also with a few good saves of the goalkeeper. Our finishing is getting better, more shots on target.

“You see the development of the team week by week, what we’ve been working on.

“And it becomes better and better that whoever we are putting on, they all know their job on the pitch individually and collectively and their responsibility in those things.

“So you see that things are starting to gel together better and better, which is a normal process.”

County boss Don Cowie insisted the mistake made by keeper Jack Hamilton, back in for injured number one Ross Laidlaw, when he was caught on the ball by Danilo, was not the reason for the defeat.

He said: “Well, he’s disappointed in terms of the manner the goal. I don’t think that was the reason we lost the game.

“I think he played really well, apart from that one moment, so we’re not going to get too caught up in it.

“It’s an error that could be from maybe the lack of game time in the last five or six months, so he maybe just got caught out in terms of the tempo, maybe thought he had a bit more time than he did. It happens.

“And he showed really good character throughout the whole game, considering how little football he has played.”