GANNON Zoned-in Hoops can be cooking on Kaz out east

THERE'S going to be a lot of talking the coming week about Celtic's epic journey to Almaty.

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There will be chat about bum-numbing flight times, blasting through time zones and battling with jet lag.

It will all be true. Kazakhstan is blooming miles away.

About 3500 actually - which is about the same as Chicago in the opposite direction.

It will be a beast of a trek.

But here's the thing - Kairat have to do it as well. And they have to do it first.

Glasgow is just about the furthest trip they could have been handed at this stage in the competition as well and it's never easy flying west either.

Celtic are likely to try to stick on UK time when they head out there and that will mean the game will kick off about quarter to six at night in their heads, even if it's nearly 10pm local time.

Flip it and Kairat will hear the first whistle when they'd usually expect to be in their jammies and the game will finish at a time us old guys have to stagger out of bed for our pitch-black Jimmy Riddle.

And it's why there should be no excuses from Celtic this week - or next.