PHILIPPE CLEMENT praised his Rangers stars for keeping their cool against hot-headed Hibs.
The Easter Road side finished with nine men after Jordan Obita and Nathan Moriah-Welsh were sent off as Treble- chasing Gers won 2-0 to make the Cup semis.
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And boss Clement was fuming with Moriah-Welsh’s “reckless” lunge on John Lundstram for a straight red card.
The Belgian said: “The tackle was a few yards away from me. It is a
reckless tackle with the studs in front and it doesn’t matter then if you break a leg or not. It is just reckless.
“It is important to get that kind of tackle out of the game. It is not good for Scottish football, or any kind of football, tackles like that.
“If you put a hand or an arm in the face for Obita’s second booking you can get a yellow, that everybody knows.
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“But players need to know if you tackle like the second one, you get a red.
“It is good for nobody because it is a danger to injure someone if you go in like that.”
Clement admits such tackles aren’t unique to Scottish football, but he claimed they don’t always result in red cards here.
He added: “I have seen them before also, but they were red cards everywhere — in France, in Belgium, in Europe, but here some people pass by without red cards.
“It is good for the game that players understand this is not the way you tackle because you endanger your opponent and nobody wants to get tackles like that.
“It’s the same with the story of elbows in the past. When I played, you didn’t get red for that. It happened also much more.
“Now this is almost out of the game because everybody knows it risks a red card. It benefits every player, every manager and every club that these things go out of football.”
Clement says it was key for his side to keep their discipline as Nick Montgomery’s men lost theirs.
And having put so much into last Thursday’s Europa League draw with Benfica he was happy with his side’s display.
He said: “My team also stayed cool in some heated moments, which was important to do.
“It is what I tell them every week. I want to stay with 11, I don’t want reckless tackles, I want them to stay on their feet.
“It is important to play and finish games with 11.
“We knew from before it was a hard place to come.
“We had a massive European night that cost a lot of energy against a team as good as Benfica, with travel and everything.
“Hibs had all week to prepare physically, mentally, tactically, and they are in good form.
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“But we played a really mature game.
“We had most of the chances, most possession so you deserve to win.”
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