Dundalk boss Filippo Giovagnoli says he cannot afford to dream of the group stages as it will only send him ‘crazy’.
The rookie Italian boss sends the Lilywhites into Europa League playoff battle against KI of the Faroes Islands at Aviva Stadium tomorrow.
And the winner on the night will progress to the lucrative group stages - a stage Dundalk graced four years ago under Stephen Kenny.
But while Giovagnoli is confident of delivering victory, he is refusing to get carried away beforehand.
“My brain is built to think step-by-step,” he said at the match venue this evening. “I would go crazy if I start to dream, I have to be focused on the task.
“This is my task now, I have to perform, and when I’m finished this one I’ll have to perform the next.
“Football is like that: you can be a hero one day and, the day after, if you don’t perform, if you lose a game, you become stupid.
“It is what it is, but now the focus is on this game.”
Midfielder Chris Shields is suspended tomorrow and Sean Gannon is Dundalk’s chief injury concern.
The full-back is still struggling with the ankle injury he shipped in the early stages of last week’s win away to Moldovan champions Sheriff.
And asked if Gannon would be fit, Giovagnoli said: “We don’t know yet.”
He continued: “Pressure is a privilege and it's important to have this kind of privilege in life and I hope we have more of this.
“Let the pressure come because it means we are successful. This game is a final and when you’re in a final, you deserve to be there.”
This is Giovagnoli's first senior professional coaching role having managed academies before.
So it's no surprise that tomorrow’s clash is the biggest of his career.
“I can say so, for sure. But the focus is not on me, it is on the club. It’s a big, big opportunity.
“It’s not about me, it’s about the club, it’s about the players, and, I think, the entire football nation in Ireland.
“If Dundalk go through, it’s in the interests of everyone. Imagine the points in the [coefficient] ranking.”
