NIR BITTON today revealed Celtic feared they were heading for one of the club's worst-ever results after Stjarnan stunned them with an early goal in Iceland.

The Israeli midfielder settled his team's nerves with a headed first-half equaliser in their Champions League second qualifying round, second-leg tie, which cancelled out the sixth-minute strike from Olafur Karl Finsen.

That shock had rocked the Scottish champions – 2-0 ahead from last week's first leg at Parkhead – into gear, their 4-1 win on the night courtesy of further goals from Charlie Mulgrew, Leigh Griffiths and Stefan Johansen which gave them a convincing 6-1 aggregate victory.

Ronny Deila's men will now have to make a 7,000-mile round trip to the Azerbaijan capital Baku to face Qarabag in the third qualifying round, with the first leg at Parkhead next Wednesday and the return a week later.

That will be a test for the Parkhead club, but Bitton is just happy to be there after what for a time was a nervy night.

Bitton said: "I’m really happy. Not because of my goal, but because we won the game. The goal was a bonus – the most important thing was that we got through to the next round and stayed in the Champions League.

“We were all worried when they scored. We didn’t want to start the game like that and concede a goal so early.

“That wasn’t in the game plan, but sometimes you need to deal with this kind of thing. The most important thing is that we recovered and scored four goals."

The plastic pitch in Iceland did not help Celtic on the night, Bitton being one of the few who looked close to comfortable on the surface.

He said: "The pitch was difficult, but it’s not an excuse for us. They play on the same pitch as we did. Okay, they are used to it, but as a professional, you have to be ready for this. We are not 100 per cent yet as this is the beginning of the season, but we will get there."

This was one significant step taken by Celtic to get to where the club and all the supporters want to be. Bitton is no different.

He said: "The Champions League is the most important thing for us – we want these unbelievable moments at Celtic Park."

But first, Celtic have to get past Qarabag and to make the long journey to Azerbaijan for the first time before the final play-off round of qualifiers.

Bitton said: "I have never been there. This will be the first time and it will be a difficult game for me in the second leg.

“There are no easy games, we have to be prepared and we have to go through to the play-off round. We have another game on Saturday against Rennes, and we want to face Qarabag with confidence.

“It was a justified scoreline at the end as we were the better team – but, yes, it gives us more confidence.

“We try to improve every day in training. We have new guys coming in and we try to improve our chemistry,

"But we will do that. We will get better with more training and games together."