Scott Brown: Craig Gordon saved the day for Celtic against Hapoel Be'er Sheva

Gordon saved a penalty early in the match - but was then involved in a shambolic mix-up with team mate Saidy Janko which handed the Israeli champions a second goal and made for a fraught final 40 minutes.

The Hoops were ultimately grateful to Gordon's first-half penalty save as they held on for a 5-4 aggregate win to rejoin Europe's elite following two seasons out of the competition.

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Brown said: "We made it tough for ourselves but this big man (Gordon) saved our day once again, an outstanding performance from start to finish and a penalty save as well. The way he has been playing recently is outstanding.

"We managed to dig deep and it was a gutsy performance.

"It's been a couple of years since we have been in the Champions League but we deserve our place."

"I didn't even see Saidy coming," he said. "I shouted to Kolo (Toure) to let it run and Saidy has come in on my blind side and crashed into me. These things happen but we managed to see the game out.

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"I think I did all right, I don't think there was a lot I could do about the second goal to be honest with you. I thought I handled everything the came in the box and that's all I can do."

Rodgers believes his players took "a huge step and got their rewards" and will be all the better for coming through such a nervy and fraught experience.

He said: "Tonight they added an extra percent to their mentality.

"I think deep down that maybe they didn't think they could achieve because of the short period of time we have been working with them.

"But we have built into them a belief that if you work hard and with an intensity that will give you confidence and you give yourself a better chance of winning and when you are stuck you can dig it out.

Maybe the focus of the criticism when I came in was we couldn't tough it out but we showed after two games and under a huge amount of pressure that this team could tough it out.

"You can never say you are calm. You could probably see the bench working tirelessly to plug gaps, the players were on auto-pilot towards the end but I thought that towards the end they had just about run out of ideas.

"I think they coped really well but you could never switch off until the final whistle goes.

"It is incredible moment for the supporters, they are going to be back in amongst the Europe's elite and it is where Celtic belong."