Clement urges Rangers fans to turn Hampden into a fortress for vital home clash with Dynamo Kyiv

Philippe Clement has urged Rangers supporters to turn their temporary home at Hampden into a Champions League fortress.

The Light Blues were forced to decant to the National Stadium when shipping delays brought building work at Ibrox grinding to a halt.

Striking a deal with the SFA to utilise Hampden until the end of September, Rangers will now host Dynamo Kyiv in Mount Florida for the second leg of their Champions League qualifier on Tuesday.

And, while Clement accepts that the atmosphere of Ibrox on a European night can’t be matched, he wants supporters to play their part in driving his side into the play-off round, where RB Salzburg or FC Twente lie in wait.

‘It’s crucial,’ said the Belgian. ‘They’ve been amazing in all these European evenings at Ibrox. They made so much noise, so much positivity, that in moments the roof came off. And I hope to get that also in Hampden.’

The Rangers boss has pleaded with fans to turn temporary Hampden home into a fortress

The club have not been able to use Ibrox because of delayed construction work

The ravages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced Dynamo to move the first leg of the third qualifying round clash to the Lublin Arena in Poland, where Cyriel Dessers struck with the last kick of the ball to secure a valuable 1-1 draw on Tuesday night.

The issues which forced Rangers to vacate Ibrox were largely self-imposed, a decision to order steel from China prompting supply chain hold-ups and a delay to building improvement work on the Copland Road Stand.

Clement’s team will play their first home Premiership game of the season – against Motherwell – at Scotland’s national stadium on Saturday, and the manager hopes supporters will make the most of their surroundings.

Cyriel Dessers equalised with last kick of the ball against Dynamo

Striker Dessers celebrates with his team-mates after dramatic late intervention

Clement wants Rangers fans to turn up the heat at Hampden for return leg

‘It will be different for them, but I hope that they support the team in the same way and they see that everybody’s working really hard,’ he said.

‘Because there are a lot of circumstances for the moment that we are not at our top, like players coming out of a long-term injury or missing a part of pre-season and new players coming in.

‘So there’s a lot of potential in this squad to grow and to become better, and we count on all the positivity and the support of the fans to push the players every time to their maximum, in a good way, which is what they’ve been doing last season.’