Clement appeals for Euro help to Scottish clubs

Rangers manager Philippe Clement has urged Scottish football authorities to follow their Ukrainian counterparts’ example of postponing domestic games before important European ties.

The Ibrox side travel to Poland to face Dynamo Kyiv in Tuesday’s Champions League third qualifying round first leg, with their hosts having been spared a domestic fixture at the start of their own Premier League this weekend.

Clement thought Rangers did not need a postponement of Saturday’s Scottish Premiership opener as they needed the 0-0 draw with Heart of Midlothian to improve match fitness at this stage of the season.

“But it can be along the way something that could help to get more teams into the Champions League,” he told BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound.

Clement thought the Ukrainian league had acted to help Dynamo “be fresh” for Rangers’ visit.

“So you see that the league there are pushing hard for their European teams to help them get good results because it is good for the country,” the Belgian said. “It is something to think about for other countries.”

Having rated his own side’s start to the game at Tynecastle “not good enough”, Clement stressed he would need to use his full squad as they balance domestic and European fixtures.

“We have a lot of games to come – I hope nine in this next four weeks,” he said. “So we need the rotation in that way. We cannot do it with the same XI.”

Latest centre-half signing Robin Propper was not involved in Edinburgh having only joined from Twente on Friday, while Vaclav Cerny, the on-loan Wolfsburg winger, was only given half an hour as a substitute.

“If you see the first minutes of Cerny today, he brings stability on the ball and that we lose the ball less fast with the quality there,” Clement said.

“But it’s just his first minutes with the squad. He trained three times now, so we can’t expect miracles.”

Meanwhile, Clement is hopeful Oscar Cortes’ injury “is not too serious” after the on-loan Lens winger was forced off four minutes after half-time.

“He fell down in a bad way with his knee, but he said at half-time that he was OK,” the manager said. “With his first sprint, he felt too much and we had to make a change.”