Incredible, unbelievable, terrible- McCoist slaughters Clement as Benfica pick him off

Ally McCoist delivered a scathing attack on Philippe Clements tactics as he watched in horror from the commentary box as Benfica killed off his Dublin dream.

From the earliest stages of the match Clement had all of his outfield players positioned within 40 yards of the Benfica goal when they were awarded corners.

It suggested that Clement saw this as the only way that his side were going to score but left them wide open at the back with Connor Goldson or John Souttar unlikely to keep up with Angel di Maria using fair means.

Midway through the second half Benfica netted after a quick break from a James Tavernier corner, they could have scored more but didn’t have to as they moved into today’s quarter-final draw.

“At this level, you need to be on your toes to compete with these sort of teams.”

Phillippe Clement reflects on Rangers narrow defeat to Benfica at Ibrox as they exit European competition…

?? @missconniemac | #UEL

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— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 14, 2024

Picking up on McCoist’s reaction on TNT Sport, The Sun reports the telly funnyman saying:

Look at this, I find it incredible. He might be in his own half, you know, the defending from Rangers again I find, frankly, unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable from your own corner. Not once, twice, three or four times, it’s amazing.

It cuts across Diomande, gives Butland the eyes and uses his pace. Silva gives himself a better angle but Rangers’ defending from their own corner, incredible.

At half time McCoist had warned:

You’ve got to call it as you see it. I think it’s a terrible goal to lose defensively. Rangers did themselves proud over the two games. But they had one or two warnings in the first half. That wasn’t a one off.

I reckon there were two or three times in the first half when Rangers had a corner but didn’t have a defender within 50/60 yards of their own goal.

During his time in management McCoist lost to Falkirk, Forfar, Queen of the South, Raith Rovers and Alloa in domestic cup ties. In Europe his side lost to Malmo and Maribor to crash out of Europe before the end of August, later that season the club went into administration, followed quickly by liquidation.