Michael O’Neill’s men go into the game knowing victory would strengthen their grip on second spot in Group C, which would earn them a play-off place, but they must cope with the stifling temperatures in Baku.
To help them acclimatise the Irish are training in Turkey this week aiming to repeat their impressive 4-0 win over Azerbaijan at Windsor Park when the visitors couldn’t handle Northern Ireland’s set pieces.
“It’s not a good time of year for us to be honest and the heat is going to play a big part in the game,” West Brom’s Brunt said.
“We’ve come out to Turkey to try to acclimatise but it’s a lot harder chasing and trying to close people down and breaking on the counter attack when it is really warm so we are going to have to play smart.
“We pretty much took them apart last time in Belfast with our deliveries and our physicality and set pieces will be important again.
“Our aim will be get the ball into dangerous areas as we did in Belfast. We know how big a match this is. Three points would be massive in our bid to make it to the World Cup finals.
“It will take a miracle to stop Germany winning our group, but we would relish a play-off if we finished second.”
