In fact it's the opposite. In the anime Cell struggles against Gohan, while in the manga he is always much superior to him.End of the Cell Games...dang, the feel good moments that the anime added with the other Z Fighters helping Gohan and then finally Vegeta...all never happened, with exception to Vegeta giving one good blast. I did like the feel-good moments in the anime, however, this made Gohan seem even stronger because it was only one little distraction blast from Vegeta and then Gohan let it all rip.
There's no struggle there since Gohan's power is half of what it was and Cell immediately sees that there's no purpose in making the fight any longer but gets distracted by Vegeta and then killed by Gohan's surprise atack.
In the anime while Cell endures the z-warrior's attacks (which should be nothing to him), he has difficulties countering Gohan's efforts, and even when in the end it's also made clear that he could still increase his power more, the constant power ups from him and Gohan kills that sense of Cell being clearly above him.
Regards!