Mark Devlin 
Stu Forster/Getty Images Sport
Callum McGregor spoke to the Celtic View in an exclusive interview ahead of Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final clash against Rangers at Hampden Park.
Almost exactly a year ago, the Hoops coasted past Sunday’s opponents at the same stage of Scotland’s primary cup competition, with McGregor himself opening the scoring with a composed finish in front of a packed crowd inside the national stadium.
Celtic went on to win the competition and seal their first domestic treble in 16 seasons. No team in Scotland has ever won back-to-back trebles before, which makes this game that much more thrilling.
The Scottish international knows exactly what’s at stake here and is aware that these kind of games define a club’s season:
This will be the biggest game of the season. Obviously we’ve had a lot of big games but with a semi-final you want to progress and get into the final.
It’s a big moment in the season to see if we can win the game and get to another final and then try to go further than that. The big games at Hampden are always important and help define our season.
When we go into any semi-final the objective is to get to the final. The fact that it’s against Rangers adds that bit of spice to the game. We know what these games are all about – you’re playing for more than the team, you’re playing for a cause and for the supporters. That always adds that wee bit extra to the fact that it’s a semi-final.
The midfielder knows that Rangers will be out for blood, especially after Celtic’s dramatic 3-2 win at Ibrox last month:
They’ll be looking to get one over on us but our hunger to win is there in every moment of every game.
It’ll be a good spectacle for the fans as well in terms of Rangers feeling that they need to come after us and try and to get a result.
They scored a couple of goals last time and I think they’ll try and model that again in terms of attacking and trying to be aggressive in the game. It’s up to us to defend properly and counter-attack well.
Aberdeen will face Motherwell in the other semi-final on Saturday before the two Glasgow sides battle it out a day later for a place in the final next month.
Brendan Rodgers’ side will be looking for yet another victory over their rivals this weekend, as well as successfully going 10 games without a loss against them since the start of the 2016-17 season.
