TALKING about the weather is a full-time habit for many people who live in this part of the world.

And it so happens to be the main topic of conversation among those who have travelled to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku on the Caspian Sea to watch Celtic take on Qarabag FK tonight.

Imagine the hottest day of any Mediterranean holiday you might have been on and then ramp it up a notch.

There is not a breath of air here and, while Celtic kick off at 9.30pm local time when it will be cooler, the humidity really is something else.

Put it this way, you wouldn’t want to play football in these blistering conditions. Yet, this is what Celtic have to do. Sometimes being a footballer isn’t the best job in the world.

Craig Gordon joked that he was okay as all he had to do was stand about as he spoke at a school in Baku that Celtic paid a visit to yesterday where they donated strips and footballs to some incredibly excited kids.

The big goalie was actually sitting down inside a gym and the sweat was pouring off him as he spoke.

Gordon said: “I played in Skopje over in Macedonia (for Scotland), which was similar in terms of the heat. That was difficult to compete against the home team with those temperatures.

“This game is tonight so it should be a little bit better. You do have to adapt and we should be able to come up with a plan that will be good enough for us.

“It is hard to deal with. In Macedonia, as the second half went on, it actually wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be before we went into the game. If we concentrate on that too much and it’s in our mindset before the game, then that can work against us.

“We need to into the match as normally as we can and, at the same time, respect the conditions without going over the top. We can’t use this as an excuse.

"We have got to try and win the game by any means possible and if that means being camped on our own 18-yard line then so be it.”

Assistant manager John Collins admitted on Monday that Celtic may have to have to re-think their all-action, always-pressing high-energy game given that asking the players to do so would be rather cruel.

To be honest, they won’t have much choice.

Gordon said: “It is very warm. It will cool down a little bit at night when we play, so hopefully it’s not going to be as hot.

“We might have to change how we play. It’s impossible to press for 90 minutes in these conditions.

“It will be a different game plan, but I don’t think it will affect us too much with regards as to what we are going out there to do. If we do have to sit off a little bit before pressing then that’s what we will do.”

And now to the game – and it’s a hard one to call.

Qarabag have some good players and are more used to these conditions. That much is correct, but Celtic are better and, if they play well and can cope with the heat, then they will go through.

The pitch we know about. The weather we now know is an issue and Qarabag may come out and play a blinder.

Gordon said: “I thought they were a good team last week. They are a very good passing team. They showed that at Celtic Park by keeping the ball really well at times. They perhaps didn’t create anything too clear-cut, but they did knock the ball around.

“They have excellent players on the ball in the midfield area. For being the away team, they actually did really well in that part of the park. They will cause us problems if we don’t go into this the right way.”

It’s a big night for Celtic Football Club, and it could be argued the whole season hinges on getting into the group stages.

Lose here and there remains a chance of the Europa League, lose in the final qualifiers and you go right into a group in that competition. So that is something.

But that’s not where Celtic want to be.

Gordon was asked what he felt going into such an important game. Tension, nerves, excitement?

He said: “All of those things. I am looking forward to what will be a difficult match and one that could go either way. We will need to play really well if we are to get the result we want. So there is a mixture of all those emotions.

“It is exciting. It is where we want to be. We want to compete here.”