Bas Nijhuis from Holland will referee Tuesday’s Hapoel Beer Sheva v Celtic Champions League play-off in Israel.
The 38-year-old took charge of Champions League group matches involving Arsenal, Manchester City and Real Madrid last season so shouldn’t have any problem dealing with the stakes involved on Tuesday night.
Nijhuis has been refereeing internationally for eight years, he started out as a ref at the age of 15 following on from his dad.
After being appointed for the Arsenal v Olympiakos match last season he told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf: “When I made it I just jumped for joy, referees are also athletes who want to reach the top.
“I train for hours in the week and if I can work on a higher stage, it gives satisfaction. I do realise that there is no time to enjoy it, because each game requires optimum sharpness.”
Warning about the dangers of complacency for the return match Celtic assistant Chris Davies said: “There will be no issues with complacency. We have been very clear with the players. They are very focused and yesterday we had an opportunity where we could have possibly rotated some players but we didn’t. We chose to keep them in, win the game and keep that winning mentality and run going.
“From what we’ve seen of the players, led by Scott Brown the captain, who’s a real colossal figure for the team, there will be no issues of complacency for us. We know what we’ve got to do.
“We analysed them (Hapoel) before that game and have now analysed the first-leg in detail so we know where their threat is in attack, we know defensively a couple of their systems and we have a game plan for how we think the game is going to go and how we think we have can have success.
“It’s good to play against them to look at the first leg to learn about their team, players and system for the next leg. We’ve done that and we’ve got the plan.”
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