Ange Postecoglou insists Celtic will only reap the benefits of more Scottish Cup preparation time if they use it properly.
And he revealed the changes in his squad since the turn of the year that have helped propel his pursuit for more silverware.
The Parkhead club thrashed St Johnstone 7-0 in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday and will have eight days to prepare for the Hampden showdown with Rangers.
Their city rivals are in Europa League quarter final action at Ibrox on Thursday as they look to turn round a one goal first leg deficit with Portuguese side Braga.
But the Celtic boss admits he views busy midweek schedules differently now as he's watched his own squad overcome barriers.
Postecoglou told Celtic TV: "It's a benefit because we will use it that way. It depends what you do on those days.
"Like I said, for us, it's not about we've got a week off so we can sort of relax.
"It's a week where we can put solid work into the players.
"Now if we had a game that would still work the same way.
"Our battles at the start of the year was we didn't have a robust and strong enough squad to cope with three game in a week and keep our levels up.
"But with the squad we have got now, I'd be confident if we had midweek games. It wouldn't affect our performance on the weekend.
"But having a full week just allows us to really work hard with the boys and prepare and play our football, because we've got that extra time, we're going to use it."
Celtic have had the upper hand in recent derbies, winning the previous two, 2-1 and 3-0 respectively.
However Postecoglou insists he approaching Sunday's game any differently from normal despite having that edge over Giovanni van Bronckhorst's men.
"Like I said, because it's a cup semi , you kind of know that irrespective of previous form, previous encounters with the same team just becomes irrelevant", added Postecoglou.
"There's always an edge to these kind of games."
