Former Celtic captain Tom Boyd believes that Rangers will go into Sunday’s William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final tie at Hampden with the wind taken out of their sails before a ball has been kicked.

The lead-up to last month’s game between the teams at Ibrox was dominated by the narrative that built-up around the fact Rangers’ cheered the news of the draw against Brendan Rodgers’ side, an ill-advised nugget that was well used by Celtic.

“I certainly don’t think they’ll be as cocky going into that one as they were the last time out,” said Boyd. “They won’t be cheering about the prospect of facing Celtic like they were when the draw was made.

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“As long as Celtic turn up for this one, they have a great chance of going through to the final.”

However, Boyd has also urged Celtic to be wary of taking anything for granted.

Boyd was part of the long-suffering Hoops side who endured Rangers’ dominance in their nine-in-a-row years and the former defender can appreciate how a one-off game can put a spoke in the wheel.

Celtic’s current unbeaten sequence of results against Rangers stands at 9 with Rodgers yet to lose to the Ibrox side. Boyd himself was on the opposite side of that stat when Celtic prevented Rangers going into double figures with a Cup victory over the Ibrox side which halted their dominance over the Parkhead side in March 1997 with a Scottish Cup win.

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"I actually never played in that game – it might be why we won,” he joked. “Over the period of a league campaign you can rectify the mistakes you might make along the way but a Cup game you can’t as it is one game. You need to perform. There are no replays here, you play to the end and you are in or out on the performance.

“Cup games are harder to win for that reason. At this moment in time the fact Celtic have strength in depth means you would expect them to win the league because of the quality they have and you can make up for the likes of the defeats to Hearts and Kilmarnock but you can’t do that in the Cups. Which is why it is so hard to go and win them because you have to maintain that level and there is no margin for error.”