Celtic will face an improved Rangers side at Hampden on Sunday but can be confident in their own position as the best team in Scotland, says Ronny Deila.

The Celtic manager is preparing his side for a hugely-anticipated Scottish Cup semi-final match and acknowledged the success of his opponents in clinching the Championship but pointed out his players were on course to land the big prize in the SPFL once again.

"They are top in the league so they are a better team than they were last year," he said. "That's for sure because they didn't win the league last year.

"They are improved but if we win the remaining games we are on the same points that we had last year.

"It's small differences but we are in the Premiership, we're top of the league and that's a good thing.

"Rangers is a big club. They have the second highest budget in the country so of course it should be a big fight."

The Scottish Cup is the only trophy Deila has not won in his time in Glasgow and at this stage last season a controversial game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle saw his side reduced to 10 men and knocked out of the competition. He warned his players that they would need to keep focus but was confident that if they were on their game then they would be in the final in May.

"We always want to win trophies," he said. "In a semi-final anything can happen, we've seen that. In three semi-finals we have had 10 men but we know that when we have a good day we can beat anybody, Rangers as well.

"We are looking forward to it, we're comfortable but at the same time we know we have to be really focused and avoid stupid mistakes.

"In one game anything can happen but if you see the positions, of course we are the best team in the country so far. That's why we always play with extra pressure.

"We've trained the whole week with 10 men so we'll see how we go," he joked. "Of course it's so important to keep everybody on the pitch but you never know in football .

"It could also be that we play with 11 against 10. You have to prepare for every scenario and we do that.

"We hope to play 11 against 11. We have to play aggressively but at the same time be very controlled and in the moment."