‘JOKE’ TO SAY YOU’RE BEST
Cup clash at Ibrox. Rangers go into the last-16 tie having already secured the league title and sit 20 points ahead of their city rivals with an undefeated record after 34 of their 38 top-flight matches.
Barisic and his team have also won two of the three head-to-heads with Celtic this term with the other drawn.
Despite the impressive Rangers figures, Kennedy still believes fully in his troops and has stated that, on their day, his deposed champions remain the best side in the country.
But Barisic said: “I think that is the biggest joke I heard this year. They didn’t win against us in three games and we are 20 points in front of them, so it is disrespectful a little bit to us.
“You need to be in life always realistic. If someone is better and if someone is 20 points in front, you just don’t talk like that.
“It is disrespectful for all the things we do this season. It is not only from him. I know a lot of people talking about Celtic’s situation with Covid and all of these things.
“It’s like we’ve lost five games or we are just five points in front of them. We are 20 points clear in front of them, we didn’t lose a game this year. It is disrespectful.”
The war of words has added even more spice to the clash in Govan, with Rangers now aiming to take a huge step towards the Double.
Barisic and Co are confident but the left-back says past records from this campaign mean nothing now. He said: “This game will be different probably because it is a cup game, first of all. You play only one game.
“Also, it doesn’t matter now what has happened this season, it’s just a different type of game.
“We don’t think back and look at how we have played against them in the past three games this season. It’s one game, it’s the cup, it’s Old Firm, it’s a hard game and we will be prepared for that.
“I don’t think about pressure, to be honest. For us, it’s another cup game. It’s a cup we want to win and we want to lift the trophy. That’s how I look at this game.”
Barisic backed his theory about the dangers of the one-off tie by pointing to the loss Rangers suffered at St Mirren in the Betfred Cup this season.
He said: “We want to win the cup. It will be a big achievement for us, of course. But it will be hard.
“Not only this game to go through but the other ones will be hard. We saw that against St Mirren in the other cup.”
Skipper James Tavernier has returned to training and Steven Gerrard said: “James will train with the team today (Friday) full contact for the first time.
“It’s a situation we’ll make a real late call on. We’ll see how he looks. The good news is he’s on the verge.”