Caixinha admits Gers felt the strain

Gers as Brendan Rodgers’ side recorded their fourth derby triumph out of five fixtures this season.

And Ibrox boss Caixinha has revealed assistant Helder Baptista urged him to change his pre-match team-talk to put his players at ease after taking charge of the warm-up at Hampden.

He said: “That [whether the team understood his plan] is something I need to speak to them about.

“It’s possible [they didn’t] and if that’s what really happened I have to admit my own mistakes.

“I’m a guy who is totally clear in those sort of situations. But I don’t believe that.

“What I really believe is that Helder, my assistant coach, came to me at the end of the warm up and told me, ‘Please, in your speech before the match, don’t be that strong. Don’t be so tough, they need to feel a bit more freedom.’

“When you don’t feel that freedom you don’t enjoy it and you don’t perform the way you need to.

“So we were a little bit blocked. And if you are blocked, even if you have the best ideas in the world, you cannot perform. So that’s what I really felt regarding the first half.

“Because he felt they were really tense. They were really focused on the idea of playing the game but totally focused without enjoying what was going to happen.

“I need them to be focused but I also need them to be open minded in order to let my ideas and strategy flow.

“We felt that in the first 10 to 15 minutes when the team could not settle into the game or contain the opponents.

“No, it’s not a question of being frightened. It’s a question of letting things flow in the right direction.

“When Celtic scored the second goal they played as if they were getting pleasure from the game. But the penalty gave them that momentum.

“We needed something to give us that kind of momentum.”