Philippe Clement has spoken to the media after Rangers beat Hearts at Hampden. Here is what the Belgian had to say.

How pleasing is it to be through to your first cup final?

First it’s not my cup final, it’s the club’s final and the players’. That’s an important thing - it’s not about individual satisfaction. I’m really happy with that because it’s really well deserved - the players are working hard and I’m really happy about that. From the first second I stepped into this club I feel this group of players and the staff have been doing their maximum to follow the story. They are all working hard and if you work hard then you need to get also some satisfaction after. An evening like this is very important for that.

What was the message at the break?

The message was that we had to continue because we had some very good chances in the first half. Of course, there was a good goalkeeper on the other side and, in the first half, they were more fresh. But I knew if we could keep on pushing and playing our football, keeping a high tempo and creating chances then there would be more openings in the second half and that was the case.

How good is it to have someone like Tavernier on your team?

It’s not only about goalscoring because his first job is as a defender. But I like a collective way of attacking with a lot of people and he’s important in that way on the right side. He’s also a leader by example in the dressing room. But, it’s difficult for me to pick out one player. The very positive thing for me is that we have several leaders in the dressing room. We have several leaders who have stepped up from the first day. It’s an important thing as a manager to have several players in your dressing room who are like your right-hand man. And Tav is one of them.

Was the change of Wright for Cantwell to help the tempo?

I had several reasons. It was also because of the yellow card - I didn’t want to take risks with that because I knew they would try to irritate Todd more. Also Scott, with his specific qualities, can play that role as can young Ross McAusland. It’s important to have several players who can play in several positions and if you can bring in fresh ones in the second half, when the other team gets tired, it’s an advantage.

How would you judge the start to the career at Rangers?

I will never judge myself from the outside, I do it every day with myself - and I’m critical - because every day I will make mistakes in this job. But I know the story we want to build, that it’s a good story and I see everybody stepping into that story, giving full concentration to do it. And then you get fine football at the end with results. We to continue like that and not go into a mode of satisfaction. That is the big danger now. The players can be satisfied this evening and happy and enjoy that time with their family but from tomorrow I expect everybody to be focused again towards Prague. That is football. OK, we are in a final but if you are in a final, a semi-final or quarter-final, it doesn’t make a difference. In the end, it is about winning something. We are not there yet. On Thursday we have a really big game. We still miss a couple of players, we also miss some players that I cannot select on Thursday because they are not on the European list, that I didn’t make in the beginning of the season. It is again a puzzle and I expect everybody to be top because it is going to be a really hard game against Prague. We need to continue doing what we are doing with the ball and without the ball, all the same details. I am most satisfied about that, the concentration and focus of the players in the last couple of weeks in every game, towards every detail that we talked about with the analyst. It is a very important thing in our football.

Are you surprised at how well things have gone so quickly?

Surprised? I didn’t have expectations about that so then you cannot be surprised. You need to get to know the players, need to get to know the staff, need to get to know everybody. I am still working on that because I don’t know all the players in every reaction they can have. I only see the players now when they have success, you also need players who are good when you have a disappointment and how they react. It is also a very important thing in football. I am still in the observation period in that way. I think we see already after two weeks a lot of good football, a lot of chances, a team who is dominant. The things I want to see and that we work on every day really hard. It was not in many training sessions, it was more with video sessions the last couple of weeks because it has been a short time between the games. That is not the first time we had to do that.

How do you think Danilo is progressing?

Yes, OK, I will do that. But I want to speak about everybody. That is a bit my difficult to point out some players because they are all important to me. If you ask something about Danilo, he is one of the guys who is focused on the details every time to do what we want him to do in every situation, to be in that position. Because of that, he is well connected with all the players around him. He has shown positive things. He has come out of an injury so he is not at his fittest at the moment but playing the games and getting the training under his belt… Also need week we have an international week and we can go hard with some guys so he can grow more. There are other guys also who will push. It is not that Danilo is guaranteed to play every game.