THE final friendly is out of the way and the first real test for Celtic arrives at their door on Wednesday night in the shape of Qarabag FK of Azerbaijan. This football season is about to start for real for the Scottish champions.

It is difficult to put into words just how much depends upon Ronny Deila’s team making the group stages, at least of the Europa League, although that would feel very much like an unwanted consolation prize.

But what can be said is that going out of the Champions League at this stage is close to being unthinkable. It is most certainly unpalatable in the eye of the Celtic supporters who crave big European nights at their home ground. They would easily be the biggest games of the campaign unless one of the cup competitions pairs them with their pals from across the city.

Celtic look in decent nick. It’s daft to judge teams on pre-season friendlies but they coasted to a win over Rennes on Saturday, have played some attractive football and scored some good goals in all their games so far. They could hardly have done more.

Against their French opposition, who did not hold back in their tackles, Leigh Griffiths scored a fine goal and surely he will start on Wednesday. Nadir Ciftci is still finding his feet and will be a good player for the club. It’s just that Griffiths is on form and has been deadly in front of goal.

Gary Mackay-Steven also got on the scoresheet, his fourth so far of the pre-season matches in which he has really stood out. So, too, has Nir Bitton, a man who is never in a rush and who would rather cut off a limb that give away the ball.

Dedryck Boyata has also caught the eye and the only real worry for Deila is getting Charlie Mulgrew fit for Wednesday. He came off against Rennes with an injury, although was spotted walking out of the stadium later on.

Mackay-Steven has hardly put as foot wrong since moving from Dundee United in January. He rarely has a smile off his face, an indication of how happy he is to be at Celtic. Yes, there is pressure going into the Qarabag match, lots of it in fact, but that is why he wanted to play in Glasgow. If his attitude rubs off on the rest then Celtic stand more than a chance.

“You wouldn’t want it any other way,” said Mackay-Steven. “I came here to experience the big nights here and Wednesday will be one of those. I don’t feel under pressure, I just feel excited about it and can’t wait.

“With Champions League games, I’ve only ever been a spectator and seen them on the telly. You hear about them and the taste of Europe last year was the Europa League but the Champions League itself is what I want to experience as a player.

“It’ll be incredibly to be involved, it’s one of our goals as a team to get there. Wednesday’s the start of that and I’m sure we’ll give a good account of ourselves.”

Everything has been building towards this round of qualifiers. Celtic were never going to be tripped up by FC Stjarnan, so this is it, the two games that will go a long way to deciding the season and how this team, and in particular the manager, will be judged.

Celtic are better than Qarabag but that does not necessarily translate into a positive result, and the feeling is that the Scottish champions could do with a win by a couple of goals at least before heading to the heat and humidity of Baku.

“We’ve heard all about Qarabag, it’s going to be tough and we’ll need to be at the top of our game,” said Mackay-Steven. “All these preparations of playing against top opposition this early in the season has been geared towards this and hopefully we’re ready and got a fit squad.

“We’ve heard the team they played in the last round were set up quite defensively and they were quick on the counter-attack. They’ve some fast players and they’re good technically. It’ll be a tough test for us but we know our qualities and we’ll focus on ourselves.

“The first game’s here and we’ll hopefully use that to our advantage. We’ll hopefully get a full house and that’ll act as our twelfth man. That will help us and hopefully we can score a few goals and have that to take away with us.”

Mackay-Steven isn’t daft and he knows that failure to qualify will not be easily shrugged off. The pain will linger until this time next year when the clubs goes through this all over again.

However, he and all the players have been nothing but positive in both words and actions so far. For Celtic’s sake, you hope this positivity continues.

“It’s massive for us as players as well and we use that pressure as motivation to do well," said Mackay-Steven. “We want to play in the Champions League and we’ve prepared right and we feel we’re ready. It’s up to us to go out and show what we can do.

“This is exactly why I signed for the club. We don’t feel pressure we’re relishing it although it’s a big game. We feel it’s where we belong but actions speak louder than words as we know we’ve got to go out and produce the goods.”