Leaving the Euro qualifying draw in Frankfurt last October, Stephen Kenny was doing his best to put a brave face on the group of death.
In the airport that evening, on his way back to Dublin, he was awaiting word on UEFA’s confirmed fixture list and admitted to travelling journalists that he had one wish.
It was to avoid playing Greece away in June. By the time he reached the gate to board his flight to Dublin, UEFA published the list and that’s precisely what he got.
Lessons have been learned from last summer’s four game Nations League window when Ireland were caught short in the sweltering heat of Yerevan, and lost to Armenia.
Hence why he and his squad have spent the last nine days training and acclimatising in Antalya in Turkey, before arriving into sticky Athens on Wednesday afternoon.
Temperatures are hitting 30 degrees during the day, but will dip to around 20 degrees come kick-off at 9.45pm local time. Still, the heat is on the Ireland boss.
As the old cliche goes, the next game is always the most important but this really is the pivotal game in the group for Ireland and has been earmarked accordingly.
A team that has a habit of putting one foot forward only to take two steps back needs to follow up on the performance - if not the result - against France in March.
Ireland need points, not plaudits, if they are to qualify - or at least force the issue into the business end of a tough group.
Ireland’s World Cup qualifying mission was effectively over and done with after the first two games and history could repeat itself in the blink of an eye.
Like Ireland, Greece are living off their former glories.
While Ireland reached three World Cups and three European Championships, the Greeks famously went one better.
Winning Euro 2004 - and winning it ugly - remains one of the most remarkable stories in international football.
On the day Giovanni Trapattoni was officially unveiled as Ireland boss at the RDS in 2008, he pointed to Greece’s success as a blueprint for what Ireland might achieve.
That didn’t go so well of course, as his Ireland team came back from Euro 2012 with the joint worst European Championship finals record of all time.
But walking the streets of Athens ahead of this game, you don’t need to search too hard to find nods to a team that has been immortalised around these parts.
Be it the street vendors selling Greek flags emblazoned with ‘Champions’, to the smattering of 2004 trinkets in souvenir shops, the reminders are there.
But like Ireland, Greece have missed out on major tournaments of late. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil was their most recent.
And in the nine years since, the people here have fallen out of love with their national team.
There was no lasting legacy from their 2004 heroics and, for example, the national team does not own a training base of their own.
Getting fans through the turnstiles has been a big problem, which may sound strange when you consider the fervent support seen in the Greek league.
Club football rules the roost here with five clubs based in Athens - Panathinaikos, AEK, Atromitos, Panionios, and Olympiacos - and the tribalism is raw.
Scouring the Greek newspapers in recent days, it was striking just how little coverage the national team has received in comparison to the club game.
Maybe that’s a reflection on Ireland’s standing as low key opposition in the eyes of locals, even if the Boys in Green are ranked four spots higher at 49th in the world.
Yesterday for instance, there was more mention in those pages of Greece’s clash with France in Paris on Monday, with Kylian Mbappé the focus.
Locals have also deemed ticket prices too expensive for tonight’s clash at AEK Athens’ new €100 million stadium, where Greece only played for the first time in March.
That was a dour 0-0 friendly draw with Lithuania - a team Ireland narrowly saw off the year before - with just 11,950 fans inside the new 32,500-capacity Opap Arena.
While all of the €20 tickets have been snapped up for the home end, €40 and €60 tickets were still on sale as of last night - some of them snaffled by Irish fans.
Indications are that a crowd of 15,000 would be deemed positive, at least 2,600 of those are Ireland fans.
Greece manager Gus Poyet admits there is a huge disconnect between the supporters and their national team.
Last night, he said: “There is some distance between us which is not the real Greece - not when you seek Greek club football on TV.
“I’m trying to bring that back, but asking is easy. You need to win. But winning our Nations League group was a big step towards having that connection again.”
Poyet - the former Chelsea and Tottenham midfielder, and Brighton and Sunderland manager - is trying to transform his team’s fortunes.
They have lost just three of their last 21 competitive games and won that Nations League group to secure a Euro 2024 playoff next March regardless of what happens in qualifying.
They beat Northern Ireland home and away in that campaign, but their recent results should offer some crumbs of comfort for Ireland.
A 3-0 win over Gibraltar in the opening group game was run of the mill but they only drew a friendly in Malta, lost another in Hungary and were held by Lithuania.
Liverpool’s Kostas Tsimikas is their most high profile player but lacks competitive club games with just 11 starts all season - an issue Stephen Kenny knows only too well.
Greece try to control games, playing a 4-3-3 formation with one winger staying high to support the striker and the other wide player cutting inside to raid.
Ireland need to box clever and will draw on their strong performance against France as a blueprint for success.
But Ireland also need to learn lessons from their friendly win over Latvia, when they were too eager and left acres of space which the visitors pounced on with two goals.
Greece captain Tasos Bakasetas operates in those advanced midfield areas and the Trabzonspor player is one of their chief goal threats.
But Kenny believes his young strikers are primed to deliver and etch their own name in history by scoring important away goals.
One may be enough but, of course, the concern is Ireland’s lack of match sharpness with so many players out of the rhythm of club games since early May.
If Ireland are serious about reaching the Euro finals, they need to win here and take their chances with another shot at France and two swings at the Netherlands.
A draw won’t be a disaster but will leave Ireland facing a monumental task to qualify, just two games into the campaign.
It’s a position we’ve been in before with Kenny and if Ireland leave Athens with nothing, it’ll be the manager feeling the heat.
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