Rangers manager slams ‘worst decision I’ve seen in more than 30 years’ after Champions League exit

Rangers manager Philippe Clement slammed the ‘worst decision’ he had seen in more than 30 years of football after a controversial red card led to the club’s Champions League exit.

The Scottish club’s new signing Jefte was shown a second yellow card by Italian referee Marcos Guida in the 51st minute for an aerial challenge on Dynamo Kyiv player Oleksandr Karavaiev.

Rangers secured a 1-1 draw last week in Poland against the Ukrainian side in the second round of Champions League qualifying ahead of the tie at Hampden Park. However, following the controversial red card Kyiv scored two successive which saw Clement’s side crash out of Champions League qualification.

“I saw images and it is clear in football that sometimes it is a grey zone and because of that VAR is there and it helps to make football more honest,” Clement said.

“But the decision was nothing to do with grey zone. It was really clear, there was nothing going on. Jefte jumps higher, he doesn’t move his hand, his arm is next to his body, it is nothing. I try to understand the decision and ask but the referee stuck to his opinion, it was a clear foul and a second yellow and a red. I am confident his bosses will have another idea.

“I can’t say it killed the dream at that moment, because the players kept going with 10 to counter-attack, we were dominating before that and creating chances and they are a good team but you saw them getting tired and we knew we would get better chances.

“The players kept on believing but then they got the goal at the end and then we tried to force it and they got the second. It is a very decisive moment and in the end it has killed the dream of the dressing room and killed the dream of more 50,000 fans and you expect a better level of decision-making.

“This is the worst decision I have seen in more than 30 years of football. I have a lot of things in my head but you guys know if I say too much I can get a ban so let’s keep things in my head. I need to be good and smart for the club and the team and we need to move on and take positive lessons from the two games.”

With second-half substitutes Oleksandr Pikhalyonok and Nazar Voloshyn taking advantage of the extra man it left Rangers failing to secure qualification to the Champions League for the second successive season.

“It’s obviously disappointing to not get the chance to go to the next round and try to play to go into the Champions League,” Rangers captain James Tavernier added.

“We’re obviously still in Europe, the Europa League, but during the game the decision changes the whole dynamics of the game. I spoke to him [the referee] as it happened. He explained that it was an elbow in the face. Looking back at it during game time, he gets up really early. I thought it wasn’t even a free kick. I thought he got up early. There’s no malice to what he’s done.

“It’s a 50-50 ball that’s going up in the air. Jefte gets up really early. He beats him in the air. I don’t know how much contact there is. nObviously that makes a big difference. We’ll obviously look back at this and we have to brush it off quickly. We’ve got another game on the weekend.

Dynamo Kyiv will now play RB Salzburg in the next round, with Rangers having to settle for the Europa League.