Caixinha: We gave too much respect

RANGERS boss Pedro Caixinha last night accused his players of showing arch-rivals Celtic too much respect. The Ibrox side failed to repeat last season’s Scottish Cup semi-final triumph over the Parkhead club, sliding to their fourth defeat of the season to Brendan Rodgers’ men. Admitting that assistant Helder Baptista had warned him of tension in the squad during the warm-up at Hampden, Caixinha looked on as Celtic took an early lead through Callum McGregor and then dominated the midfield. ‘I think we respected too much the opponent in the first half,’ said the Portuguese manager, whose team lost a second goal from the penalty spot after James Tavernier brought down Leigh Griffiths and Scott Sinclair stepped up to score. ‘By respecting the opponent, we dropped off too much on the park. ‘We did not play the way that we had been

preparing throughout the week. We knew that Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong were the guys who can create all the imbalances. ‘When you add the early goal we conceded, it was difficult for us to find a way to have the ball or to have a counter-attack. ‘At half-time, we tried to change it. We changed two players and we changed Kenny (Miller), in order for him to contain Scott Brown. ‘We were good in the first four minutes of the second half until the penalty. ‘But the penalty changed things for the next ten minutes. At that moment Celtic were definitely having the momentum.’ Rangers failed to muster an effort on target until the 61st minute. In a spirited final 15-minute showing from the Ibrox side, Miller forced a fine block from Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon, who took up the role of spectator for most of the match, before an unmarked Martyn Waghorn headed a decent chance over the bar following a superb cross by Tavernier. Bemoaning his side’s failure to lay a glove on Celtic in the semi-final until it was too late, Caixinha said after his Old Firm debut: ‘We created some chances but we couldn’t score. ‘The second half was more like the way that we wanted to perform, but Celtic deserved to win. ‘We could and should have done much better. ‘We were expecting more from our team, definitely. ‘But the way that we prepared for the game and the way that we performed were completely different.’