Celtic want to make something abundantly clear after Rangers pasting – 'the title is still far away for us'
Hurting Celtic ace Paulo Bernardo says their Old Firm defeat is already fuelling them to beat Rangers in the next derby.
The Portuguese midfielder sampled a loss in the fixture for the first time on Thursday since arriving at the club from Benfica. The 3-0 Ibrox mauling stunned Brendan Rodgers’ side who remain 11 points clear of Rangers at the top of the Premiership table. Bernardo didn’t like the feeling of losing to their city rivals and is determined not to taste it again. The 22-year-old is already eyeing up Old Firm revenge when they next meet on March 15. But for now, Bernardo says it’s vital the champions bounce back in style today against St Mirren at Parkhead.
Bernardo said: “I have enjoyed a lot of good experiences in this game (Old Firm). So yeah, Thursday has given me a lot of motivation for the next one against Rangers. It’s good that we have a match so quickly because we need to get a response as soon as possible. We have to reset now. We didn’t play as well as we wanted to against Rangers so we need a response as soon as possible. That’s our job. We need to go again on Sunday because we’re Celtic and we want to win.”
Rodgers’ side were accused of complacency at Ibrox as they failed to turn up for the derby and were well beaten, thanks to goals from Ianis Hagi, Robin Propper and Danilo. They’re still odds-on favourites to make it four-in-a-row in May - but Bernardo is adamant they won’t get ahead of themselves.
As he prepared to get back to winning ways this afternoon, he said: “The title is still far away for us. We’re only in January now, it’s the first game of the year so we’re not focusing on the title. We’re only concentrating on the next game.”
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