Philippe Clement proves the Rangers numbers nerds wrong and I see nothing to fear in Europa League last 16 – Barry Ferguson

If you believed the number crunchers, Rangers barely stood a chance of fighting their way into the Europa League’s top eight.

But I’ve never been one for paying too much attention to the stats and thankfully neither it seems is Philippe Clement. His side were give a mere 10 percent probability of claiming a last 16 slot. But those sums simply didn’t add up on a night when Clement’s team were determined to upset the odds.

I was impressed by the way Rangers went about things in Thursday night’s league phase finale against Union Saint-Gilloise. We all know about the injury and ineligibility issues the manager is dealing with right now but there was no moaning or groaning from him or his players. They simply got on with the job at hand and did what was required. Clement had to rejig things, moving James Tavernier to centre-half, bringing Leon King in for his first start of the season and then asking winger Ross McCausland to cover at right-back when King went off concussed.

Hamza Igamane did a turn for the team off the left wing too while Cyriel Dessers put in one of, if not his best ever, performances in a blue jersey up front. It was a true team display from a squad down to the bare bones and they got the win they needed which, along with a little help from elsewhere, booked their place in the top eight.

That combination of results might have seemed unlikely to the boffins but I always had a sneaky suspicion this team would come up with the right formula to qualify. As much as it’s been a tough campaign so far domestically, Rangers have been upsetting the odds all year in Europe.

From skelping Nice away to putting in competitive displays against Premier League big guns Tottenham and Manchester United, I think we’ve seen