The Ibrox manager was furious with the umpires after his team was denied a late equaliser in the Old Firm defeat to Celtic.
Rangers manager Philippe Clement was left disappointed after his team’s goal against Celtic in the Scottish Cup final was controversially ruled out on Saturday afternoon. He claimed that Dujon Sterling had been subjected to a far more apparent foul earlier in the contest, which went unpunished.
Following the close 1-0 defeat, Clement vented his frustration at referee Nick Walsh. Rangers’ chances of glory were crushed by Adam Idah’s 90th-minute goal at Hampden Park, leaving them with only the League Cup this season, while Celtic won the Premiership and the Scottish Cup.
The disallowed second-half goal by Abdallah Sima, which was overturned following VAR intervention for an alleged push on Celtic custodian Joe Hart, particularly irritated the Rangers manager.
Despite the setback, Clement lauded the encounter as Rangers’ best derby performance of the season and believed victory was within reach.
However, he couldn’t get over his annoyance with the disallowed goal, especially when compared to Liam Scales’ first-half shove on Sterling, which he thought far more egregious but was ignored by the officials.
Speaking to Rangers TV, Clement lamented: “By far our best Old Firm performance this season. The superior team had six shots on goal, but they only got two. You feel like you’re on the verge of winning, and then the referee makes a huge decision.
“If you compare with other decisions like the push on Dujon Sterling in the first half, which was 10 times more than that, but no foul. So disappointed about that. But I’m most disappointed for the fans, we wanted to give them that.”
Clement added in his post-match press conference: “Even people of Celtic were saying that we were the better team today. In that way, it’s mixed feelings. You’re disappointed because you do everything to win and everybody worked really hard for that the last weeks and months.
“But I’m also proud of what my team showed today. Do we need to take steps? Yes. We get two shots on target today, we get a goal. We created six shots ourselves. We need to score in that moment.
“Then if you have the scenario also that you score goals and they are disallowed in that way, that’s also in that moment a disappointment if I compare with the push Scales gives to Dujon Sterling in the first half.
“I didn’t see the situation back but it’s a much bigger push than what happened with Joe Hart. If I see also how older Celtic defenders are grabbing my players and having their arms around their neck and around their waist, it’s a really big call to make to disallow that goal.”
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