Gordon Smith: The heat won’t be on Celtic in Champions League qualifiers if they’re smart

CELTIC have my sympathy after landing Armenian side, Alashkert, in the first round of the Champions League qualifiers.

It is a tie which will give them an estimated 5000-mile round trip and, more worryingly, see them play the away leg in temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius.

In pure footballing terms, they should not have too much bother progressing to the next round.

Alashkert won their national title last season, and have European experience.

But they play in a league where everyone is guaranteed to make the top six – because that’s how many teams there are.

In what seems like a recipe for boredom, each club has to play each other three times at home and three times away to make up a 30-game season.

With no second tier in place, there is no danger of relegation to keep teams sharp.

Add those two facts together, and they shouldn’t be able to live with Brendan Rodgers side, especially as they don’t even have the advantage of being already well into their campaign.

The heat, though, could be a leveller for the Hoops.

I encountered it when playing summer football in Austria, where they played March to November.

It definitely made a difference.

The coaches over there were great, well ahead of their time, and spotted quickly I was struggling in the heat.

They drummed in the message about getting plenty of fluids into my system, and advised me to moderate my game.

It meant being more selective about when to make my runs and to forget about being a box-to-box midfielder as such.

I did learn to adapt and changed my game a bit. I was a professional player and it was something that just had to be done.

But it was significant that when the weather got cooler after August, my performances improved.

Sports science has come a long way since my playing days, and I have not the slightest doubt Celtic’s players will be told precisely how best to minimise the effects of the conditions.

We saw an example of that with Scotland recently. They jetted into Mexico for their friendly the night before the game because that was adjudged the most favourable way to deal with the altitude at the Azteca Stadium.

What you can’t always do is get things out of people’s heads.

When you feel yourself to be physically uncomfortable in a game, there is a fair chance you are not going to do yourself justice.

Because of our poor coefficient, Celtic, our champions, are going to have to battle through four qualifying rounds to make it to the lucrative group stages of the Champions League.

When that fact was announced, there were plenty who suggested the schedule could trip them up, and now we are really starting to see why.

Should they negotiate Armenia safely, potential opponents in the next round are Rosenborg, who will have to safely navigate a tie against Icelanders Valur to make it happen.

If, as expected, both favourites progress, then Celtic will be up against a team who are in the middle of the Norwegian season.

History has shown that can be a huge advantage.

The most dramatic example probably came five years ago when Malmo thrashed Hibs 7-0 at Easter Road for a 9-0 aggregate win.

It is the sort of result that makes managers shudder, not least because the ties come right at the start of the season.

Suffer that kind of loss, and it can have a seriously negative impact on your domestic season.

The flip side, of course, is that a decent early run in Europe can also put you ahead of your local rivals, who didn’t manage to qualify.

Rangers are in Europe, too, and I was a little disappointed for Steven Gerrard that they didn’t come out of the Europa League draw with Progres Niederkorn of Luxembourg again.

I say that because I have not the slightest doubt they would have been able to easily beat the part-timers, and to avenge what was the Light Blues’ most-embarrassing European result would have been hugely popular with supporters.

Best draw of the lot from a fans’ point of view was Aberdeen’s pairing with Burnley with two huge nights at Pittodrie and Turf Moor in store.

Plenty of heat – of a different kind from what Celtic will experience – is guaranteed.