Philippe Clement fumes at Hamza Igamane absence as Rangers boss ‘not happy’ with Europa League passport woes
Philippe Clement has admitted his frustration after passport issues saw Hamza Igamane unable to travel to Sweden for Rangers Europa League victory over Malmo.
The Moroccan forward – who joined the Gers from AS FAR last summer – had been included in the squad for the Europa League opener but was not permitted to make the trip to southern Sweden. But as it turned out, the Light Blues coped just fine without him, with a first Rangers goal for Albania international Nedim Bajrami and a fine effort from substitute Ross McCausland getting their campaign up and running and also handing the Ibrox club a first win over Malmo at the fifth time of asking.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Clement said said: “I am clearly not happy with that, there were issues with his passport. Those are situations that you don’t want to face as a manager but I want to focus on the football and the good things of this day.” Rangers passed up several huge opportunities to rack up a much more handsome scoreline and he Belgian boss also conceded his side’s lack of proficiency in front of goal stopped them from coming away from the Eleda Stadion with a “perfect” night’s work.
He added: “In quality yes but in finishing not. It could have been perfection if we scored the three goals in the first half that we deserved, so we need to finish it off in that way. It’s not errors, its part of football and I see the best players in the world not scoring with every chance.
“It’s important that we create them and that the players are focused. We will keep working on that to make the quality better in our squad and to be more decisive. I think it was a good example with our second goal. A few months ago he (McCausland) didn’t have power or quality to shoot with his left foot but he has been working every day to improve that with the staff. And because he did that he scored this very important goal.”
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