Rangers explain why Cyriel Dessers stormed off pitch as FCSB get Jack Butland apology from referee

The striker appeared angry and upset as he walked straight down the tunnel in the aftermath of Rangers’ third goal on an otherwise perfect evening when a brilliant double from Vaclav Cerny and strikes from Tom Lawrence and Hamza Igamane provided the required response to the heavily criticised weekend defeat at Kilmarnock.

Dessers, who has now gone six games without a goal and was heckled by the home support at times, required treatment at the side of the pitch after being caught in the face minutes before Cerny fired home Rangers' third. As his team-mates celebrated the goal, Dessers made his way to the bench, gesticulating with Clement before heading inside, despite no substitute being ready to replace him. It left Rangers frantically trying to get Igamane stripped and onto the pitch before restarting the match with just 10 men.

Clement explained that Dessers had an "emotional moment" after being left frustrated by an eye injury as he discussed the incident in his post-match press briefing.

"Cyriel got a knock or a finger in his eye or something in his eye, so he lost sight," Clement said. "He could not see good anymore. He was quite emotional about it because he wanted to stay on the pitch, but he didn't see anything, so he ran off the pitch. That was a really strange moment for me, but he apologised after the game.

"It's better to sit down and give time for your teammate to come in. It was in the emotions of wanting to win, wanting to react, wanting to play well, what he was doing also in the game. No problems with that, but it's good lessons also for this young squad in that way, to take every moment in a really professional way."

The Rangers boss added: "Cyriel is somebody who has such a big passion for this club. He wants to give everything, every day in training, every game in that way. He felt he was really good in the game and he was. And it's hard to come off. And as a player, you can have an emotional moment. They're human beings. He will learn out of that.

"He learned already because he came straight after the game towards me to talk about that. I think there's nobody in this room who never had an emotional moment in his life. So Cyriel had it. Unluckily for him, all the cameras are on top of him at that moment. So nothing done there. I hope we can get him fit for Sunday."

Clement was delighted with the response his players gave him against an admittedly poor FCSB side to ease the pressure that had built after the weekend defeat at Rugby Park.

"We were all sick of losing," he said. "The players, the staff, everybody was disappointed about that.

"We wanted to stand up all together, and that's what they've been doing. It's good also that it was in this way, because it's in Europe. Somebody told me also it's more than 20 years ago that Rangers won a group stage game with four goals difference.

"So it's a good reference in that way that it's not so easy to do things like that. I still see a lot of things that we can improve in this game, but I'm happy that everybody can see that there's potential in this squad. Like I've been saying the last weeks and months, we need time to get everything together, to connect everything together, and to get better and better."

Rangers enjoyed a comfortable win in the end but things could have been different had referee Marco Di Bello not penalised David Miculescu for a foul on Jack Butland which denied FCSB a second minute opener. Contact appeared minimal when the Romanian striker robbed Butland to leave the goalkeeper in a heap before stroking the ball into the empty net. Di Bello whistled before the ball crossed the line meaning VAR could not get involved and FCSB boss Elias Charalambous felt his team were wronged.

“I don't know if things were different if the referee made the correct decision in the beginning of the game when we had a clear goal,” he said. “Speaking with him at half-time, he apologised to me that he should have waited with the whistle to see from the VAR the situation. I respect that he apologised even after his mistake but it's too late. I repeat, Rangers were better, no excuses. They won the game, and this is just one thing that maybe could change the situation.”

Clement took a different view on the incident. “It’s not something you want to see in that moment. And Jack knows that also, but it's a foul on him. So it was not a goal, it's a clear foul. But you want to stay out of the risk of that situation. But that's also Jack, afterwards he plays also a terrific game with his feet and with his hands. And he's very important for us.”