Rangers boss Philippe Clement admitted his team were taught a brutal lesson as Lyon romped to victory in their Europa League clash at Ibrox.
A lethal attacking display saw the French side run out 4-1 winners, with Alexandre Lacazette and the outstanding Malick Fofana scoring two apiece. Tom Lawrence cancelled out Fofana’s opener early in the first half, but Rangers were thoroughly outclassed over the 90 minutes.
Clement had conceded pre-match that Lyon operate in a ‘different world’ due to their vast spending power, but he also felt his team did not do themselves justice.
‘No, definitely not. We had some good chances but didn’t take them,’ he said.
‘We didn’t reward ourselves. We started the game with good intentions, good intensity, good quality. To put fire in the stands, to have an amazing European evening, you have two big chances, the first two chances of the game, so you need to kill them off.
‘Against teams with this quality, you don’t get so many chances, so that’s disappointing.
Winger Vaclav Cerny missed one of two big chances Rangers had early in the game against Lyon.
Rangers captain James Tavernier had a torrid night before being substituted in the second half.
Malick Fofana celebrates with his Lyon team-mates after scoring their fourth goal at Ibrox.
‘However, 4-1 is a really harsh result, if you see the chances we had. In the end, it’s the same amount of chances that both teams have, and we had more in the first half.
‘But it was 3-1 at half-time, and that’s the difference in quality.
‘If it’s 1-0, 2-0, of course it’s a totally different game. So we go behind by losing balls in places that we cannot lose balls and then our defending is not sharp enough.
‘We come back to 1-1, but the two other goals (follow). We concede because we lose balls in our own half, so that’s very disappointing.
‘Lyon is then on the sofa and can wait for transitions. They have a team with a lot of good players, technical qualities. They make a tremendous third goal also.
‘In the second half you try to push to come back. So in the end you have the same amount of chances as Lyon, but the scoreline is clear.’
Lyon forked out close to £120million on new players over the summer — and Rangers simply couldn’t cope with their flair, pace and power.
Asked if he had to accept the gulf in quality, especially with the quality of Lyon’s finishing, Clement said: ‘No, I cannot accept it. I don’t accept losing games, and I don’t accept the level that we are.
‘I’m always ambitious to raise the level. But we need to make the next step, the next couple of months, to finish off those chances, and then you can go to another level, otherwise not.’
Clement took off Rangers captain James Tavernier midway through the second half. Already trailing 4-1 at that point, he had endured a torrid evening up against winger Fofana.
Clement insisted there was nothing untoward about his decision.
‘Yeah, everybody can be replaced, so not much to say about that,’ he said. ‘And Nana (Kasanwirjo) showed the last couple of weeks he can be a really good replacement.
‘He’s defensively very solid, so those are normal things. We are going to play more than 60 games this season, so it’s impossible to play all these games.’
Meanwhile, Lyon boss Pierre Sage said: ‘I was so proud of how we defended in the opening ten minutes. Rangers put us under a lot of pressure, but we held firm.
‘But we scored just after they equalised and that was the worst possible moment for them. Then we were able to get a third just before half-time and that killed the game.
‘We were able to score in really decisive moments and that had a big impact on the opponents’ psychology.’
