Philippe Clement believes Rangers players can make memories to last a lifetime against Tottenham at Ibrox on Thursday night.
The Gers boss was criticised by some fans after the 3-0 William Hill Premiership win over Ross County at the weekend for pointing to the superior spending power of the London giants and Celtic, whom they face in Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup final at Hampden Park.
Ahead of the Europa League clash against Spurs, Clement stressed the timeless potential for overcoming the odds, pointing to the occasion when his Club Brugge side beat AC Milan in the Champions League in 2003 as evidence.
The Belgian manager was asked if his side can put a performance that they can be talking about for the rest of their lives.
“I’m convinced that’s possible, yes,” said Clement, who will be without Brazilian striker Danilo and Romania international Ianis Hagi as they are not in this European squad.
“Everything can be bridged in one night. I had the luck, and it’s not only luck, it’s also a lot of hard work, as a player and as a manager, to have several nights where the gap was amazingly big.
“And those are also the best nights. If you then perform and you get the results, those are also the nights that you remember all of your life.
“Those are also the moments that, as a player, you remember your team-mates really well.
“The moments of success, the moment of doing something special. So in that way, I hope the players can give themselves and as a team a special night tomorrow.
“For example, with Brugge winning 1-0 in the Champions League away to AC Milan, the team that the year before won the Champions League with Dida, Cafu, Costacurta, Maldini, Seedorf, Shevchenko, Inzaghi, and a few really good guys on the bench also.
“So that was a really special evening. And still, if we meet each other, and it doesn’t happen so much, people still talk about that evening together.
“So I had a few of those. Rangers have also several of those in the history and those are the special evenings. So it’s a really nice stage for my players.”
Spurs have won only one of their last seven matches in all competitions – a stunning 4-0 victory at Manchester City – amid a gruelling fixture list and a growing number of absentees.
While former Celtic boss Postecoglou finds himself under increasing pressure, Clement, whose side are on course for the knockout stages with 10 points from 15 – the same as their English opponents – said: “It’s how you see things. I think a few weeks ago I saw them play against Man City. They were not in such a bad place at that moment.
“So it’s Premier League, it’s the highest level in the world in that way. And things are really close together, so you can lose points there. I think it’s still a really good team.
“We played with Brugge against Messi and Neymar, and Mbappe with Monaco also.
“So, before the game, if you show the images of them, what they did in their career, it’s better to stay home.
“But it doesn’t work that way. That’s not football. So, with good collective things, you can do really good things and get results.
“And this team can also do that with very good collective things and individual actions.
“But it’s about the team performance. Maybe some people took my words a little bit wrong after the Ross County game, it’s not only about money.
“It’s also about work and what players do together. Otherwise, it would be easy and every team that has more money would win every time.
“That’s not the case, but the others need to work more. And that’s what we need to do tomorrow evening.”
