BROTHER Pedro Caixinha insists his Ibrox team will derail Celtic’s dream of a domestic clean sweep of honours.
His side’s 2-0 win over Partick Thistle in Govan yesterday sees them take an eight-game unbeaten run and three straight clean sheets into their Scottish Cup semi-final against the champions and League Cup winners at Hampden a week today.
With Brendan Rodgers’ men unbeaten in 39 domestic games – and going for 40 against Ross County today – Caixinha is confident his “11 warriors” can stage an action replay of the same Cup sensation they produced under Mark Warburton at the last four stage a year ago.
Asked if they were ready to beat Celtic, the Portuguese coach said: “This team is always ready to beat ANYONE – and Celtic is the next one.
“The approach to the game is going to be different – it’s an Old Firm (sic) game, a knock-out game, and I like the strategic side of the game, so I’m looking forward to preparing for it.
”I just hope to have 11 warriors starting the game.
“One point I am not totally happy about is our performance defending. Normally we see the result and we see zero goals in Kilmarnock, zero goals at Aberdeen and zero goals against Partick.
‘But I know we need to improve a lot in defending as a team and not only the back four or the goalkeeper himself.
“It’s also true we are not letting the opponent create so many clear chances against us, which is good.
“But I want more, so I want more collective performances defending and need to keep working on it.”
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