Rangers 0 Benfica 1 RECAP: Philippe Clement chuffed despite Europa League heartache

Jack Butland

Jack Butland had a double dose of disappointment after exiting Europe on the day he was left out of the England squad after weeks of speculation that he would be included.

But the 31-year-old vowed to keep “knocking on the door” for Euro 2024 as he spoke of his proud at how the Light Blues performed over two legs against Benfica.

Butland told TNT Sports of his Three Lions omission: “I haven’t had any discussions. If your name is being chucked in then you’re doing something right and when I found out I wasn’t in the squad it was back to normal and try and continue doing what Ive been doing here. That’s the only reason I’ve been in the discussion in the first place.

“The minute it was out, it was all eyes on this game. Could I, should I doesn’t really matter. I’ve worked hard enough and done enough. Three fantastic goalkeepers will go and I’ll just keep knocking on the door.”

On the 3-2 aggregate defeat, he added: “We’re disappointed because the lads across the two legs were unbelievable. We dominated the game here and drew at their place with a questionable penalty and own goal and a counter attack from one of our corners has undone us.

“I’m immensely proud of the lads. Nobody gave us a chance but we held our own and we probably deserved more, especially from tonight and if we’d gone through it wouldn’t have been a disservice. I have no idea about their goal. It must have been a fine line but I haven’t seen it if it was close or not but if VAR came to the right decision then we have to accept that. It was just a shame to concede a goal like that.

“If you’re playing against a team like Benfica you might put more emphasis on corners because they might have more possession and dominate the game but that wasn’t the case. We played some really good football and got into some really good areas and caused them a lot of problems without that finishing touch. We’ve got great delivery and sometimes things might drop for you but we were brilliant and could have scored in many other ways. It wouldn’t have been a smash and grab at all – it was a really good performance.

“We’re playing two games a week and they are doing the same, it’s rained for about 72 hours solid but the pitch was in fantastic condition. The boys pushed hard, two really good sides, and we were brilliant and barely gave up anything at all apart from the goal.”