Philippe Clement has defended Rangers’ Old Firm celebrations as he told his critics to take your green tinted spectacles off. Among those who criticized the gesture were Celtic icons Neil Lennon and Peter Grant, who questioned the appropriateness of such jubilation after a match ending in a stalemate. However, Philippe Clement, the manager of Rangers, defended his team’s actions, emphasizing the significance of their resilience and performance.
Clement stated, “First, what happens with the team? We go behind after 22 seconds. Then you go 2-0 behind in an Old Firm. It is more than 30 years since a team came back in that situation. We score in extra-time with a very good goal.”
He continued, addressing the criticism, “You cannot be happy with that? It would be a bit weird but I read a lot of comments. It is a funny thing is this town – everybody has coloured glasses, for sure, around the Old Firm.”
Clement dismissed detractors, asserting, “There are a lot of comments about everything, but I don’t care what people with coloured glasses are saying. It is not important for me. Yeah, we were happy that we could come back in that situation, and that we showed resilience and scored an amazing goal at the end. But before the game we wanted to win, and in the game we wanted to win also.”
He highlighted his team’s continued offensive efforts, saying, “After the amazing goal we were the team who still created a chance, we were not the team who were defending. We got a good chance still with Cyriel Dessers at the end, so we were going full for the three points. We can be happy after a well-deserved point. It could have been more, but it was more about the reaction.”