For Glasgow Rangers coach, OL is “another world”

Olympique Lyonnais, “it’s a different world, we know that, but we will fight with our qualities”said Glasgow Rangers coach Philippe Clément on Wednesday before their Europa League match on Thursday (9:00 p.m.) in Glasgow. “Winning against Lyon would be huge, even a draw would be a very good result when you see the money they can spend on transfers”said the Belgian, who arrived on the “Gers” bench in 2023.

The former Monaco coach is counting on the extra soul linked to European evenings at Ibrox Stadium, “the most special”those where “players and supporters give the best of themselves”.“But we are also realistic”he added at a press conference, referring to “the budget difference” between the two clubs and the money that OL “spent on this team”.

“It’s a different world, we know that, but we will fight with our qualities, as we did against Betis Sevilla and Benfica” last season in the Europa League, he said. The Rangers were eliminated in the round of 16 by the Portuguese club, the same level as OL in their eyes.

“This Lyon team has a lot of experience, full of players with great careers, like (Alexandre) Lacazette with Arsenal, (Nemanja) Matic with Chelsea and Manchester United, or (Corentin) Tolisso with Bayern Munich”he listed. He also mentioned the “young talents” like (Rayan) Cherki, “who is one of the stars of French football, and also the new wingers (Malick) Fofana and (Ernest) Nuamah”and plus the Wilfried Zaha.

For Clement, “They have two teams with quality players. It’s always exciting to see what we can do with our qualities in the face of this, I can’t wait”. Both teams kicked off their European campaign with a 2-0 victory, against Olympiakos for Lyon and against Malmö for Rangers.