Philippe Clement insists Rangers “still have our fate in our hands” despite suffering a second blow to their Scottish Premiership title hopes within three days as they were held to a goalless draw away to Dundee.
On top of Sunday’s 3-2 defeat by Ross County, Clement’s side have now squandered their two games in hand over Celtic and are now three points adrift of the reigning champions.
Dundee had an early strike from Amadou Bakayoko ruled out for offside, while the closest Rangers came to scoring was when Jon McCracken saved superbly from Cyriel Dessers as mental pressure mounted on the visitors.
Clement, though, insisted: “It was nothing to do with focus, desire or will. It was to do with a lack of efficiency, some luck as well.”
Rangers nevertheless have now only won two of their latest eight games and will almost certainly have to win at Celtic Park for the first time since 2020 if they are to prevent their city rivals retaining the title.
“I don’t speak about favourites,” Clement told BBC Scotland. “If we win the last five games, the fans are going to be happy.”
Meanwhile, Dundee have built on clinching their first top-six finish since 2015 at the weekend by moving to within two points of St Mirren to improve their hopes of European qualification for the first time since 2003.