CAIXINHA VOWS HE WON’T PAY PENALTY

RANGERS boss Pedro Caixinha has primed his players to be ready for a penalty shoot-out against Celtic. The Ibrox side reached the Scottish Cup Final last season by overcoming their bitter rivals after suddendeath spot-kicks. And Caixinha has had his players competing since Tuesday to prove they are ready for lightning to strike twice tomorrow. Speaking before his first taste of an Old Firm clash as manager, the Portuguese insisted: ‘I’m not thinking about the match as my first Old Firm experience, only of preparing the team to be ready to face one of the strongest opponents. ‘That’s undeniable, you cannot hide from that. But now we are thinking about the 90 minutes. Or if it’s 120 minutes, or if we need to go to penalties. ‘We started on Tuesday with the players practising penalties every day. ‘When I reached the semi-finals of the Portuguese Cup with Nacional in 2012, we went through every round on penalties, then lost on penalties to Sporting Lisbon in the semis. ‘In Mexico, I won my first trophy with Santos Laguna on penalties. So we need to be ready for everything. ‘We need to be ready for the opponent, but you are more important than your opponent.’ Caixinha has set his players the task of taking one spot-kick a day to replicate match conditions. Admitting he already knows his chosen takers if the sides can’t be separated after extratime, he explained: ‘All the players have the chance to score one penalty in each one of the sessions this week. Normally, they would get two or three — but this week just one. This week is different. One is the reality we could face. ‘We have our chosen penalty-takers. Usually, you have three. ‘You have it written on a piece of paper on the wall. The players know it. I’ll have the names in my notebook.’