ERIK SVIATCHENKO has warned Rangers that they can expect to face a very different Celtic team to the one they knocked out of the Scottish Cup last season as the Scottish champions seek to assert themselves ahead of the bigger challenges ahead in Europe.
The Swede, who scored the first of Celtic’s goals in the 2-2 draw before Rangers went through on penalties, suggested that the top of the Premiership table meeting with their city rivals will help get the current leaders up to pace for the subsequent trip to Barcelona as Celtic aim to maintain this season’s 100 per cent domestic record while extending their league lead which already sees them ahead with a game in hand.
“These are the games you want to be playing,” he said. “Rangers are strong and they will be competing for something at the top of the league. I hope we can be the best team in the league.
"We have the following game against Barcelona. There seems to be some kind of connection between Celtic and Barcelona in the Champions League. Hopefully we can get some of the same things that happened some years ago.”
Anything close to a repeat of Celtic’s heroics against the Spanish champions in 2012, when Celtic led at Camp Nou and lost to an injury time before going on to claim a 2-1 win in the return in Glasgow, would be remarkable. However, first things first, Sviatchenko, who naturally said he would have swapped his semi-final goal for a win that would have taken Celtic into a Hampden final, acknowledged that he and his team-mates had not been as ready as they should have been for their then lower division opponents, before indicating that they will be much better prepared for what will confront them this weekend.
“I think as a team we were a bit different back then. We are much better now. Our physicality, our stamina is better,” he claimed.
“We have been training a lot to improve these kinds of things. We are at a different level, but then again they did really well in that game. We had difficulties playing against them even though we had some individual skills that took us into the penalty shoot-out. Rangers have done well and they are ready to compete again.”
He acknowledged the criticism that Celtic had, in particular, not collectively looked to be in the physical shape necessary for that encounter, but believes their overall condition has improved since April.
"It was a tough game, yes,” said Sviatchenko. "I didn't notice the tiredness personally because I came into the team after an injury. That was the feeling back then though.
"At this stage we have extra gears and we have that sixth or seventh gear that we can go to and keep on pushing and pushing, especially in the last 15 minutes as that signifies a team that wants to win. We had been conceding goals in the last 15 minutes and that is a good change.”
That was at least partly down to mindset he reckoned, while he admitted that Celtic had not known enough about what they would be up against that day.
"It is a mentality and fitness thing . . . a combination of both,” said Sviatchenko. "You have to be relentless and be good enough but you want to be more than ordinary, so you have to be extraordinary. So for us it is always about pushing the limits and raising the bar and being ready for the challenges that will come.
“I didn't know much about Rangers back then. I knew them as a club but I did not know how they were playing, although we had some clips of them before the game. Personally they surprised me how they played in the semi-final. They were doing well.”
Sviatchenko noted that new manager Brendan Rodgers’s famed predilection for providing his players with dossiers covering all aspects of forthcoming matches should help with that process.
“We will analyse them before we play them this time and we will be ready,” he said.
"We still look at the dossiers as it is always great preparation. It is not like it is homework, as it is up to each individual and how they get themselves tuned in on a game.
"It is always good to know about a striker if you do not know how he plays or his game and you get some stats and whether he favours his right foot, left foot and what he does in a game.
"Those small things are decisive in a game and if you are tired you can remember that a player will probably go to the right side. It is small things like that which can give you the upper hand so the dossiers are good from that perspective.”
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