BRENDAN RODGERS believes his Celtic side will get even better after they once again came out on top against Rangers.

The Parkhead boss was thrilled with the performance of his side in a 1-0 Betfred Cup semi-final win on Sunday that earned them a place in next month's showpiece with Aberdeen.

Despite the scoreline being less emphatic than the 5-1 hammering dished out last month at Parkhead, Rodgers was left in no doubt that the stats proved his team continue to go from strength to strength domestically.

And the Hoops boss reckons adding more focus and domination to their game equals a bright future this season for the Scottish champions.

“I felt we were dominant in the game," said Rodgers. "I’m not massively into numbers and statistics but virtually every statistic on Sunday was actually better than the 5-1 game.

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“We had more possession of the ball, we had more efforts at goal and had more corners. The only thing that was down was shots. We had eight shots on target on Sunday and in the 5-1 game we had nine.”

When put it to him that his Rangers counterpart believes the gap between the two sides isn't as big as some suggested, he added: “Mathematically the gap went down, from 5-1 to 1-0. So maths will tell you it went down.

“But if Mark is happy with his performance then as a coach and manager that’s all you’re looking at. I can only look at it from a Celtic perspective and I think it was shown that we were pretty dominant in the game. For us, I was pleased with then performance.

“As a coach who likes to see improvement I think the team will get better as the season goes on, once there comes a greater idea of how we want to work.

“I can see improvements from when I first came in, there is absolutely no question about that. Look at the physicality of the team on Sunday, in terms of how we stopped rangers playing. That’s very important."

Rodgers was understandably enthusiastic about the long-term future of his team. Equally, he was delighted with the response from his men given events in the recent past.

The Premiership leaders were outplayed last Wednesday by Borussia Monchengladbach at Parkhead in a 2-0 defeat that brought their Champions League aspirations back down to earth following the 3-3 draw with Manchester City.

There was little sign of any hangover on Sunday, however, as Celtic dominated proceedings at the national stadium.

Rodgers said: “It was a very good performance. Sometimes it’s just about winning and semi-finals are about getting to finals.

“That is the key. But I always feel that if you can perform well then it gives you a greater chance.

“When you saw us against Monchengladbach we didn’t perform well. Our review of the game, when we spoke to the players, was one of the few times since I’ve been here that we didn’t play out our system very well.

“We had to reinforce and consolidate a lot of the areas we’ve been working on during pre-season to make sure we could go into this game and get back to into that flow again."