Phillipe Clement Says His Side Sent ‘Good Message’ during Celtic Defeat

Phillipe Clement has claimed his side sent a good message to Celtic despite their Glasgow Derby defeat.

Celtic beat the Ibrox side 2-1 with a good performance. But over and above that, they bossed the game. Callum McGregor bullied their midfielder and debut Derby bhoy Bernardo put the Ibrox contingent to shame who have played in this fixture many times.

“I didn’t see one player who didn’t fight. I didn’t see one player who didn’t show quality in a lot of moments. Yes there were mistakes made but I’m really happy with the way this team is reacting.” The Belgian told RecordSport.

“I’m really happy with the way this team is growing and we need to continue. This needs to give us more hunger.

“Now the most interesting thing for me is to see after a disappointment, a moment where you are not happy, and how they react. They showed it on Saturday because going 2-0 behind and going down to 10 in a strange situation where your supporters are not in allowed in the stadium, and showing that character. I think they sent a good message. But I think they need to show a strong message on Tuesday too.”

It was a great free kick by James Tavernier but let’s not get things mixed here, they brought very little to the game beyond that. They tried to hit long balls and counter attacks as well as pressing Celtic to no avail.

He can talk about strange situations with no away fans in the building, however, the club he works for were the culprits for cancelling 7000 away supporters coming through the door.

You can ‘show fight’ all you want but the talent and experience of the Celtic team sent the bigger message to an Ibrox fan base who thought they were heading to Celtic Park for at least a draw.

Clement had a steady start to his career in Scotland with all the usual cheerleaders egging him on. After the game on Saturday, you could see it begin to unravel a bit. His first defeat comes at the hands of Celtic and he got tetchy with the media and was still screaming for a penalty that was never going to be a penalty due to his player being offside.

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