Rangers manager Philippe Clement is confident that his team are still constantly improving and he's vowed they will be even "stronger" despite losing 4-1 to Lyon on Thursday. 

The UEFA Europa League defeat showed the gulf in class between the Scottish Premiership side and their French visitors, with Lyon taking their opportunities and Rangers failing to do exactly that.

Clement knows budgets come into play as he detailed how he would've required many of his players to have performed beyond their capabilities if they were to pull off a memorable Ibrox result.

"It's about taking those chances," the Rangers boss explained. "We know that if you can spend 10 times more then you will have more quality on the pitch. But we are working hard with all the lads to raise the level in that way, and everybody has seen that level has risen the last couple of weeks and they need to continue doing that.

"These experiences will only make them stronger. The good one's and also the one's like yesterday (Thursday) because it creates hunger, it creates desire to become better and to see and to feel what aspects we need to improve in our game."

(Image: PA)

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Speaking to Sky Sports on Friday, he said: "We need to be more efficient, more effective, we had the same amount of chances. You need to kill off the job, that's the difference in Europe and then you can take momentum out of that. What we did really well in Malmo was scoring in the first minute then after you can control the game and use those spaces, and that's what we didn't do against Lyon. 

"Although, on the ball we did some really good things and created some open, clear chances, but you need to finish them.

"We had the same chances as Lyon, so that's clear for everyone to see. Okay you can play with 10 players on your 16 (yard-box) all the time, but you see the second goal they score, they have a lot of quality there in a small space to make the difference. So, you will have the same problems or different problems or bigger problems that way.

"We are all convinced that this was a good way to approach the game, there was not one of the goals we had less players than they had attacking, but they have the individual qualities to kill off the job and we are working on that.

"You know against opponents with a much bigger budget that you need to dig-in, you need to have a few players who rise above their level and make the difference in the offensive part and defensive part, probably in both, to get the big results. 

"But I think the really positive thing is the football that the players brought yesterday. Of course, we still need to improve a lot of other things." 

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Rangers will experience the opposite when they face St Johnstone on Sunday night, with the Glasgow club's finances clearly dwarfing the Perth outfit. 

"You cannot predict," Clement said on the upcoming league fixture. "They had a manager a few weeks ago when we played against them and he was sacked after. The interim manager did the job, they did it in a different way, now a new manager is coming in. So, we don't have any clue how they are going to approach the game. 

"The most important thing is we look firstly at ourselves to play that game, and I think the main target now is to recover really well after the game on Thursday, to do that today and tomorrow, so we can be good again come Sunday."