Head coach of Scottish Rangers Philippe Clement, summarizing the results of the return match with Dynamo Kyiv (0:2) in the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League, which took place yesterday in Glasgow, mainly talked about the suspension of his team's defender Jefte for the second yellow card at the beginning of the second half of this meeting.
Philippe Clement"Nothing like that happened in that episode. Jefte jumped above his opponent, he didn't move his arm, it was close to his body. So what's there?
I tried to understand the referee's decision and questioned him, but he stuck to his opinion that it was a clear foul and a second yellow card. I'm sure his bosses will have a different opinion.
I can't say that this suspension killed our dream: even though we were ten men down, we counterattacked. But just before that we dominated and created chances. Yes, Dynamo is a good team, but you saw how tired they were, and we knew that we would have great chances now. Anyway, our players continued to believe in success even after the suspension, but then we conceded two goals in a row.
Anyway, Jefte's penalty was the decisive moment that killed both our dream and the dream of more than 50,000 fans who were in the stadium today. This is the worst refereeing decision I've seen in over 30 years of my soccer career. Everyone who watched this game saw that we were the better ball control team in the first half. And we knew that the opponent would not have the proper amount of energy for the second half. But one man's decision changed the whole game. It's really tough.
I have a lot of thoughts about it, but, you know, if I say too much, I can get disqualified, so let me keep it all to myself. We need to move on and learn positive lessons from these two games," Clement said at the post-match press conference.
