Celtic assistant Chris Davies was ill watching Hoops fight for Champions League spot

The Hoops assistant spent the 90 minutes sweating in dug-out as Celtic faced off Hapoel Be’er Sheeva with a grinding tension headache as he tried to work out a strategy to ensure the Parkhead side made it into the group stages of the Champions League.

At 2-0 down on the night and a nervy 5-4 aggregate scoreline – Craig Gordon also saved a penalty - Davies has admitted that he had to reach for the paracetamol.

Read more: Celtic set for £5m windfall as Chelsea prepare summer swoop for Virgil van Dijk

“The Hapoel Be’er Sheva game was the worst headache I’ve had in my life at the side of the pitch.

“Towards the end we pacified the threat and Erik Sviatchenko coming on was a key moment for us. I felt we pacified them.

“They were chasing and fighting and getting desperate so we had to defend well. We couldn’t pretend it wasn’t there. We had to deal with it and regulate it.

Asked if it was something of a sliding doors moment against Hapoel, Davies concurred. Qualification for the lucrative group stages set the tone and the same will be expected again this summer.

“It was,” he said. “And that’s why we have to have an awareness in terms of making sure players get rest as we come towards the end of the season and face qualifiers.

“It was an intense game.”

Read more: Celtic set for £5m windfall as Chelsea prepare summer swoop for Virgil van Dijk

This Saturday is the first-year anniversary of Brendan Rodgers’ arrival in Glasgow.

Celtic announced that Rodgers would be Ronny Deila’s successor at tea-time on the Friday evening before he was then unveiled at a press conference the following Monday evening.

On a sunny early summer’s night, supporters packed into the stadium to watch the formal unveiling of Rodgers, something that not only opened Davies’ eyes to the size of the club but also to his own feeling that Rodgers and his backroom team would compliment the demands and expectations at Celtic.

“I was amazed,” recalled Davies. “Obviously we had been at Liverpool, one of the biggest clubs in England. I always knew Celtic was a huge. But that day Brendan goes and gets unveiled and I am seeing the whole side of the stadium filling up.

“More and more people are coming. I don’t know the exact number of people who turned up. I think there were something like 15,000. But the noise that they were making was amazing. I have never seen that before I have never seen it in England.

“I have never seen fans turn up for the unveiling of a manager with that passion and that noise. The sun was shining, Brendan walks out, it was great to be there and see that. I just thought: ‘Yeah, this looks like a good match’.

“Brendan with his love for the club and his status as a manager, these fans, this club, this fits perfectly. I was sitting back watching it unfolding and couldn’t wait. But that was a special highlight of it, that unveiling. I don’t think I will see and unveiling like it again to be honest.”

This summer Celtic will again look to secure an invitation to Europe’s most prestigious club competition, but they will be better prepared to meet the challenge having established a positive foundation in Rodgers’ inaugural season.

“Ideally, I’d like to avoid something quite as intense as that,” said Rodgers with regard to the Hapoel game. “The key thing is knowing we are strong enough to cope with it in different places and at different grounds. In pressure moments we’ve delivered.

Read more: Celtic set for £5m windfall as Chelsea prepare summer swoop for Virgil van Dijk

£For where we are there’s obviously limitations in terms of finances. We’re in a position where we can dominate in Scotland but there’s a reality because we are not in the Premier League and getting the vast amounts of money teams down there get.

“Champions League qualification financially in terms of what it can bring is important for the club. The club is managed and run in a very sensible way by the owner and Peter Lawwell. So there’s no worries there but of course getting into the Champions League and what it can give you revenue wise is important for the club.”

Meanwhile, Davies has insisted that the senior players in the Hoops deserve credit for the role they have played in taking Celtic to within touching distance of a treble as well as going through the season as invincibles.

Scott Sinclair and Kieran Tierney have dominated the Player and Young Player of the year awards and while Davies has been delighted for them, he has also insisted that the older players are “the glue who hold it together.”

“Scott [Sinclair] has gone from maybe not enjoying his football so much to having an amazing season so I have loved that,” said Davies. “I have loved the development of players – Stuart Armstrong, of course as well as players like Callum McGregor and Kieran and younger players as they have developed and evolved as the season has gone by.

“In addition, I have loved the influence of the senior players because that is so important and they should never be forgotten because they are the glue that holds it all together; Scott Brown, Mikael Lustig, Craig Gordon have been excellent for us and they are leaders within the dressing room.”