Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers dismisses Old Firm ‘dead rubber’ suggestion
“That’s where you get judged at this level, whether you’re working at Celtic or Rangers – I think you get judged in these games. I saw Giovanni van Bronckhorst coming in He reached the European final but lost his job shortly after when he lost to Celtic.”
Rodgers is keen to improve on his performance in the recent Premier League Sporting Cup final, which Celtic won but Rangers followed until losing on penalties after a 3-3 draw with Hampden.
“That’s an important metric for any manager and I’m fully aware of that, I always have been,” he said of Old Firm Derby. “It’s important to win against your greatest rivals, but also the progress of your club.
“You want to win every game, you want to play your best. For me, I love the occasion, I love this game – it’s an iconic game and I always want to win.”
“My players know what it means in this game, they know what it takes to win, and they like that I’m committed to making that happen.”
Celtic captain Callum McGregor says they hope to learn lessons from the close Hampden final.
“We’re going to revisit the game and see where we can do better, what areas we can exploit and try to cause them problems,” he said.
“The most important thing in a cup final is to get through and win and then when you get to the next game you can sort out the little details. I think we’ve done that since that game.
“We want to perform better than the cup final, play our part in the game and perform better than the final.
“It’s a derby game and you want to win, so no matter where you are in the table, everyone wants to win.”
