Scottish League Cup: Rangers manager Philippe Clement believes they were denied penalty in ‘cruel’ defeat to Celtic

Rangers manager Philippe Clement believes Rangers were denied a penalty before their ‘”cruel” defeat to Celtic in the League Cup final.

Celtic clinched the trophy courtesy of a tense penalty shoot-out after the teams drew 3-3 in 120 enthralling minutes at Hampden Park.

But Clement was left fuming at VAR, believing his side should have been awarded a penalty early into the second half in what would have been a major turning point in the match.

Liam Scales grabbed a handful of Vaclav Cerny’s shirt and pulled him to the ground, receiving a yellow card for the foul. A free-kick was awarded right on the edge of the box.

“I don’t know if you saw the images back, but my phone is overloaded with the penalty situation with Cerny. I get hundreds of messages now about that. That’s also a really decisive moment in the game.

“Of course, he (the referee) cannot see that moment. But he didn’t get the communication from the VAR to come to watch the screen, which for me is a really weird situation. At least there’s no look about that kind of situation in this kind of game, about the situation that the referee can make a decision in that way.

“I didn’t see it at the time because I still have quite good eyes, but I cannot see that much distance if the foot is outside or inside or on the line.

“So no, but my phone is full of messages from everybody. I don’t know. So those are things I cannot control.

“I know all of [the media] like to dive deep into things so maybe it’s an important moment to dig into that. About why there’s no communication in the moment about a big decision like that because it’s clear for everybody that it’s a game-deciding decision.”

Clement is yet to beat Celtic as Rangers manager but was proud of the attitude of his players.

“I would not like to be here speaking about a penalty because I want to speak about the team and what they did today,” Clement said. “How brave they were after a big European night on Thursday and giving a lot against Tottenham.

“Two days less recovery and showing the physical levels that they did today.

“Also the team spirit and the mentality and good football. I think it was a really good game for Scottish football, this final.

“Everybody can be happy about that but you want to win the trophy.

“But we had to do a lot of things extra to get it to our side if you don’t get a penalty like that.”

He believed the defeat, which came after Ridvan Yilmaz was the only player to fail to score his penalty, was “cruel”.