Clement's pride as Rangers book last-16 berth
Philippe Clement expressed his pride after Rangers defeated Union Saint-Gilloise 2-1 at Ibrox to punch their ticket straight to the last 16 of the Europa League.
Nico Raskin and Vaclav Cerny were on target in front of a thrilled home crowd, while Nice drew 1-1 with Bodo/Glimt to allow the Gers to clinch eighth spot in the league phase.
Clement's men faced four of the other seven sides who made up the top-eight places, something that the Belgian felt really hammered home the scale of their achievement.
"I'm super proud of this team not only being in the top eight but if you see how many good teams are not behind us but above us, four we played against, it gives the performance more importance," he said.
"The squad mentality, like I said so many times, there was a rebuild in the summer with a lot of new players.
"You have to fit everyone in the dressing room, let them adapt, learn the principles, so it took time. This dressing room, everyone wants to do everything for the colours.
"Maybe we don't have the talent of other teams, but it's about mentality also, it's an important quality in this club. The belief was there from the first day about digging in and giving everything we have."
Raskin has been one of the few Gers players to consistently perform in an underwhelming domestic campaign.
On his central midfielder, Clement added: "Yeah I have known Nico for a long time. When he was playing under-18s football at Standard [Liege], where there was fire, there was Nico.
"He needs to learn the position on the ball and off the ball. He's taken brilliant steps these last couple of months, learning a lot, he always had a great mentality, a great fire inside of him.
"And now he's understanding what the role of a six is. But that's game minutes, making mistakes also."
