THERE are many emotions that can be associated with the high-octane business of competing for a place in the group stage of the Champ-ions League: excitement, tension, anticipation, pride.

For Ronny Deila, the manager of Celtic, his first, disastrous attempt to reach that particular promised land has ensured one prevails over all as he prepares to embark upon that same path again this week. Fear.

The Norwegian had only just arrived through the door at Parkhead 12 months ago when, trying desperately to implement his own ideas on training and sports science in addition to winning over a largely unconvinced dressing room, his dreams of pitting his wits against Europe's elite descended into rubble.

Following a relatively straight- forward win over KR Reykjavik of Iceland in the second qualifying round, Legia Warsaw dished out an embarrassing 6-1 aggregate defeat over two legs. The eventual removal of the Poles from the competition as a result of fielding an ineligible player as a substitute in the final four minutes of their 2-0 second-leg victory in Glasgow was only the precursor to even greater humiliation.

Celtic's second bite at the cherry in the play-off round came against little Maribor. A 1-1 draw in Slovenia had set things up perfectly for another of those wonderful nights under the floodlights at Celtic Park, but a second-half goal conceded in the most shambolic fashion to Marcos Tavares plunged Deila into a very dark place.

Celtic are a much more settled club as they prepare to welcome fresh Icelandic opposition in Stjarnan on Wednesday. Deila has won over players and supporters with his infectious personality and has an SPFL Premiership title and a League Cup to show for his quite tumultuous debut campaign.

There were extenuating circumstances in that loss to Maribor. He can offer rational reasons for the defeat, but he cannot forget the emotional hurt it created and his imminent return to the Champions League stage has brought it all back to the surface.

"It doesn't annoy me at all, but I hate the feeling and I have that feeling in my body," he said. "It is a feeling that you fear and that drives you.

"You always have a fear of losing, you hate losing. When I think back to that, though, we were just not good enough.

"There is a fear attached to these qualifying games, but we really want it. Everybody does everything, every day to get ourselves prepared and we really believe we can do it. I think we are good enough."

Deila could easily have kept things ticking along the way they were under his predecessor, Neil Lennon, in an attempt just to get through those qualifiers and into the group stages. He was never prepared to take the safe option, though.

The 39-year-old, certainly a progressive thinker in terms of bringing science and psychology into the changing room, wanted to stamp his mark on Celtic from the get-go and, for a time, looked set to pay the price.

"You cannot be anything you are not," he stated. "I am me. I have to do the things I believe in and know.

"I could have said that we would continue the things that had been going on before, but you can never beat the original. I had to be me and I did that from the first day.

"Of course, that is easier now. You come to a new country and it is a new culture, a new language, new opponents, new players and a new level. It is a bigger club. I can mention 100 things that were different from what I was used to before.

"It was different for the players as well. They'd had the same coach for four years and it was a transitional spell.

"We are in another place now from where we were one year ago."

The same can be said of Nir Bitton. Hard on the heels of a season that had been hampered by niggling injuries, the Israeli midfielder failed to make a positive impression on Deila in the early stages of last term and found himself stuck on the sidelines.

He adapted his game to the more pressing style his new coach wanted, though, and had established himself as an important part in the engine room of the side by the time Celtic met Inter Milan in the Europa League's round of 32 in February.

It had taken time for Deila's side to find their feet in European football's consolation competition. Their path through the group stage was hardly straightforward and owed much to some miracle-working from their goalkeeper Craig Gordon.

They gave Inter the fright of their lives, though. A pulsating 3-3 draw in Glasgow in the first leg left them up against it in the cathedral of the San Siro, but they did have early opportunities before the 36th-minute sending-off of Virgil van Dijk changed everything.

Celtic were forced to mount a rearguard action and eventually lost 1-0 thanks to a Fredy Guarin goal scored just two minutes from the end.

Bitton believes the Ladbrokes Premiership champions provided evidence of their ability to perform on a high stage that night in Italy, though, and admits that gives him confidence ahead of the Champions League qualifiers.

"I think we showed our level last year against Inter," he said. "We got the red card and I think it changed the game. Before that, we had a couple of chances to score and get the away goal.

"First of all, we need to qualify, but I think we will do good things in the Champions League.

"Last season was a little bit difficult for us at this stage because there were a lot of changes in the club. We had a new gaffer, new players. He wanted us to do things that we didn't do before, so we weren't used to it. After that, everyone saw that we improved our game and played very well."

Deila is clear on what he expects from Stjarnan.

"It will be quite similar to what we face in the Scottish League: people that come to sit back and wait for their chance," he said.

Deila is not prepared, however, to be on the outside looking in when the Champions League proper begins in mid-September and feels he still has lots to prove to himself as a coach.

"Yes, that never stops," he said. "Every time you win something, everyone thinks you have done it, but that's gone.

"The Champions League is huge. It is the biggest goal, of course, and the dream for every coach is to have a team in the Champions League."