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Clement stirs something deep inside Rangers dressing room as Diomande tells fans how much under-fire stars care
Mohamed Diomande insists Rangers can handle the heat in Athens as he laid bare Philippe Clement’s inspirational Hampden team-talk.
The Light Blues are preparing to step into Olympiacos’ notorious Karaiskakis Stadium after a comeback Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Motherwell at the weekend. The Greek faithful and the infamous Gate 7 end are renowned across the continent for creating an intimidating atmosphere that fills their 33,000-capacity harbour-side base.
It helped fired Jose Luis Mendilibar’s team to Conference League glory last year and has contributed to a formidable unbeaten home record that now stretches to eight months. But Diomande is confident his team can cope with the noise levels and avoid a Greek tragedy – especially with the help of another inspirational team talk from the gaffer.
The Ivory Coast midfielder said: “I think we are used to the atmosphere. Personally, that’s some experience I want to have. Playing in a big stadium like Ibrox, I think we are already used to the noise. That will help. It’s almost going to be similar [to playing at Celtic Park]. We just need to be confident and play our style and get the result. I expect we are going to train very hard to prepare for that game. We are going to do our best.
“We know it’s a tough opponent and it’s one of the biggest teams in Greece, but we have been doing well away from home in Europe. So, we are going to push and get the three points. That’s what we want to do. We are in a tough group. We have a lot of tough opponents and getting results is important. We are going to try everything to get as many points as we can in every game we play in Europe.”
Getting a result in Greece would be another step forward for a Light Blues line-up that has repeatedly stumbled this term. Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Motherwell at Hampden has propelled Philippe Clement’s men into a final showdown against Celtic next month.
But Rangers are still miles off the Premiership pace, trailing both the Hoops and Aberdeen by nine points. In Europe, though, Rangers are marching ahead having taken six points from their opening trio of games. Three more would leave them on the verge of booking a spot in the knock-out rounds.
“Yes a win would obviously be good for confidence,” added Diomande. “That’s going to be a big part. We know we’ve been poor the last few games in the domestic league Winning in the Europa League in Greece is going to push us to go on Sunday again to win against Hearts.”
Gers had to dig deep to see off Stuart Kettlewell’s men on Sunday. A goal down at the break, the holders batted back to march into the final with goals from Cyriel Dessers and Nedim Bajrami. Diomande said: “It’s a big win because we didn’t start very well and we came back with a winning mentality to win in the second half. So, that’s even more nice and it’s going to push us to push more. Being behind at half-time was tough and we needed to dig in more to push ourselves and it happened at the end and we got a win. That shows how we can win games. It cannot come easy, but we need to work hard and dig in to get a win.”
Under-fire Clement was staring at the sack with his team trailing to Andy Halliday’s opener. But Diomande praised the boss for inspiring their second-half comeback. He said: “Obviously, the first half didn’t go our way. They got one chance and they scored. The gaffer was there to lift our spirit and push us more and demand from us.
“He gave a good speech for us to push in the second half. We did everything and we got the win. We showed as players we do care and we are doing that every day. We push ourselves in training. We show that we are ready for each other. Sometimes it doesn’t come easy. People say it differently, but we know deep down we are really fighting. We are trying to do everything to get a win.’
