Bernardo insists Celtic are primed to bounce back after their painful Old Firm mauling

Celtic midfielder Paulo Bernardo has vowed that the champions are ready to bounce back from their bruising Old Firm defeat at Ibrox.

The league leaders squandered an opportunity to go 17 points clear of their city rivals, delivering their poorest domestic performance of the season to date as they lost 3-0 last Thursday.

Bernardo was at a loss to explain exactly what went wrong at Ibrox, but insisted that both he and his team-mates are already itching to get back to winning ways — starting with Sunday’s home Premiership clash against St Mirren.

‘It was a bad game from the team, really tough for us,’ the former Benfica man admitted. ‘We didn’t play our football and I think they were the best team and deserved to win.

‘I don’t know where it came from, sometimes it just happens.

Bernardo challenges Rangers midfielder Ianis Hagi in last week’s match

‘We need now to work harder and focus on the things we didn’t do well on the pitch and make sure it doesn’t happen the next time.

‘For sure, we have to reset. We didn’t play as well as we wanted to, so we need to get a response as soon as possible.

‘It’s our job, we need to go again on Sunday and we need to get a good response — because we are Celtic and we want to win.

‘It is good we have a match so quickly, for sure, and we need to get a response as soon as possible.’

Despite the midweek slip-up, the Parkhead side still hold a healthy 11-point advantage at the summit, and remain odds-on to retain their Premiership crown.

But the 22-year-old Portuguese midfielder is refusing to look beyond the visit of Stephen Robinson’s men to Glasgow’s east end today.

‘The title is far away,’ he said. ‘We are in January now, the first (home) game of January, so we don’t focus on the title. We focus on the next game.’