OUR SIX IS ON FIRE IF WE REPLAY
CRAIG GORDON insists Celtic need another flawless display to deliver back-toback wins over Rangers.
The Parkhead keeper was rarely troubled as his teammates sauntered past the Light Blues 2-0 in Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final.
Celtic now head to Ibrox in four days time looking to extend their unbeaten record against Rangers this season to six games and their domestic one to 42.
Gordon believes the Hoops are ready to impress again in the Premiership clash although he’s adamant standards can’t slip.
He said: “We have another really hard game when we’ll need to go to Ibrox and put in another performance like that.
“They created a few chances in the later stages at Hampden so we know they’re capable.
“We’ll need to play well again to win but Hampden was satisfying – it was a really good performance.
“We had a game plan and were able to execute it the way we wanted. Everyone was excellent.
“We’re a passing team and we set up to keep the ball and create opportunities by moving the ball about. For the most part we managed to do that. We wanted to control the game which is what we do in most games.
“We know if we keep the ball there aren’t going to be many opportunities for the opposition.
“On Sunday we did that very well. Our centre-halves were dominant and we were in total control for large parts of the game. We had lots of clean sheets earlier in the season but have been experimenting a bit with different players and positions at the back over the last few weeks.
“Although I had a few decent saves towards the end when they had to try to chase the game it was good to get back to looking solid again. We’re confident in our own ability and it doesn’t matter who we’re playing against.”
Sunday’s semi-final came 12 months on from Rangers sending Gordon and Co out at the same stage after a penalty shootout.
But he added: “Revenge didn’t come into our consideration at any stage.
“It was nice to go out there and put that right though and you could see in our performance there was definitely no hangover from last year.”
Aberdeen await in the Final but first up is a trip to Ibrox without Moussa Dembele – out with a hamstring injury – and Scott Brown should he lose Thursday’s red-card appeal.
However, Gordon insists Celtic will cope as he added: “We’ll deal with the situation and try to win it, whoever plays and whatever the formation is. We can change it up when we need to and we’ll prepare for this one as thoroughly as we do for every other match.”