Brendan Rodgers has insisted that that he has seen nothing to entertain the philosophy that the gap between his Celtic side and Rangers has diminished.

The teams go head to head on Sunday afternoon in the semi-final of the William Hill Scottish Cup and Rodgers has paid scant heed to any suggestion that the gulf between the sides are minimised.

Last month ten-man Celtic twice came back from a goal down to take all three points at Ibrox with the inference being that there wasn’t so much between them.

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“I have heard that since I have been up here,” said Rodgers.

“Every time we play Rangers everyone talks about the gap. But we have played 9 times. You are not going to win every game 5-1.

“We won the 2-0 last year in the semi-final and we murdered them. It was 2-0. The week later we won 5-1 but we played better in the 2-0. I also equate it to Bayern Munich. We played them at home and played well but lost 2-1.

“It was a good game, a close game. I wouldn’t turn around and say we were much closer.

“Before the last game at Ibrox, every headline before the game was that this was the big opportunity for Rangers - but we’ve had that since a few games back. But you can’t heed that. You know it’s going to be a tough game and all you can do is look to bring the best in your game into it.”

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The build-up to the last encounter was dominated by news that the Rangers players had cheered the draw which has paired the clubs together at Hampden tomorrow afternoon.

And given the manner of Celtic’s win at Ibrox, Rodgers has queried whether or not they are quite so confident now that the game has come around.

“It is probably something etched on Rangers' minds because this is the game that they were cheering for,” said the Celtic manager. “For us we always respect every opponent we play and just get ready for the game

"Every manager, coach, group is different. One of the values of this club is about humility and we respect every opponent we play, whether it is Rangers, Hibs, Aberdeen, Ross County, whoever, we always have the same respect and we just prepare for the game."

Rodgers is unbeaten so far in the 9 games he has played against Rangers and his focus is on ensuring that he creates as dominant a period for Celtic that he can rather than be distracted by the sideshow of the circus that can surround the fixture itself.

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“My only worry is Celtic, to try and create a new history at the club,” he said. “This club has a wonderful history and what we wanted to do was use that as a motivation to create new history while we are here.

“In nearly two seasons now, we have been able to do that. We hope we can continue with that cycle, knowing that you are going to be challenged.

“You will be challenged by Rangers, but equally you will also be challenged by Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts and Kilmarnock. They aren’t going to make it easy for you.

“I’ll never veer away from that. You can never become complacent.

“There’s a lot of talk of a gap and all this stuff but you’ve just got to focus on improving and being better yourself.

“We’ve been there before. We’ve been there in the semi final last year, and then a week later it was going to be in the league. So I don’t tend to think so much about what their thoughts will be.

“They will want to win the game. They have good players and a slightly different style to Mark [Warburton] and Pedro [Caixinha]. But we will prepare to cope with that and, more importantly, bring our own game into it.”

"It will be no different to Aberdeen v Motherwell. It will be tense, competitive and physical.

"Then you have to bring your technical quality to the game."