Giorgos Giakoumakis rubbished accusations he was being disrespectful after his Celtic title boast - and insists he was only saying what he believes.
The Greek hitman claimed the Hoops were “better in every single part of the team” than their Premiership rivals and that he believed they would win the league after his hat-trick helped down Dundee 3-2 back in February.
That came three weeks after Celtic thrashed Rangers 3-0 at Parkhead and provoked an angry response from Gers midfielder Ryan Jack who branded the comments “disrespectful” ahead of last week’s return in Govan.
The Hoops also won that encounter to stretch their lead at the top to six points with six games remaining.
But Giakoumakis insists there’s still work to be done before the champagne can be popped at Parkhead.
The striker - who was named Premiership player of the month on Thursday - said: “I didn’t make these comments to make anyone angry or feel disrespected by me. I said what I was believing for my team.
“I believe this time we played better as a team, that’s the only thing I said but I can say also now that we played very good football and I believe in my team.
“Every single footballer can say his team is the best. I don’t think this is bad.
“From now on, we have to win the games and do our job.”
The Glasgow rivals are on collision course again in the Scottish Cup semi-final in 10 days’ time as the Hoops chase the Treble.
Before then they face St Johnstone at Parkhead on Saturday in the final game before the split and Giakoumakis said: “We know that the league is not over yet.
“We need to win every single game – that’s our target.
“The target of the team is not just to win the league – it’s to win every single battle from now on until the end.
“This is our job – to focus on the next game – no matter what the last game we played was and how the big the win was.
“We always have to focus on the next game and that’s what we are doing now.
“Of course it’s quite a strong position but as I’ve said before it’s not over.
“We have to be focused in every single game as there are more games to come until the end.
“Maybe we have a small advantage but it’s only that – nothing else. We have to protect this and keep winning in every game.”
Giakoumakis has netted 11 times in his last 14 outings as the Hoops move closer to the Treble.
After Saints comes the Hampden encounter with Rangers. And he said: “When you play for Celtic the target is to win every trophy.
“So we have to fight for it. We have a strong semi-final but right now we’re focused on the league because it’s the next game that we have to play.
“Next Monday we will prepare for the cup game. Of course this is a club with big targets and it’s something we will fight for, for sure.”
