Preview: Fresh faces jostle for a chance in Luxembourg
The mere mention of Luxembourg is enough to send shivers down the spines of Republic of Ireland supporters, but the last time these countries met actually went pretty well for the Boys in Green.
Goals from Shane Duffy, Chiedozie Ogbene and Callum Robinson helped Stephen Kenny' men to a 3-0 away win in their final game of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, as a rocky year ended on a genuine high.
"There's more to come," Kenny declared afterwards.
Alas, it proved to be one of the sweeter moments of his tenure.
Kenny was always trying to escape the shadow of his lowest moment in charge: the 1-0 loss to Luxembourg at Aviva Stadium earlier in that campaign.
With no supporters present due to Covid restrictions, Gerson Rodrigues lashed home the only goal of the game. That was in March 2021, four years and three years ago. Much has changed.
Heimir Hallgrimsson is the man holding the reins now, and he's been happy to praise a lot of the work Kenny did; chiefly his willingness to blood young talent.
"It was a big, brave decision to do that as we're benefiting from a lot of players who now have 20-plus caps for Ireland," Hallgrimsson said a couple of weeks ago.
The Icelander is a cool customer. He exudes the calm of an outsider; someone not emotionally invested in the politics of Irish football and thick-skinned enough to block out the noise.
He's also got enough decent results under his belt now to kindle that most delicate of flames among Ireland fans: belief.
Friday's 1-1 draw against an admittedly weakened Senegal offered more positives after March's Nations League promotion/relegation play-off slaying of Bulgaria. All roads, of course, lead to the 2026 World Cup qualifiers which begin with a September double-header against Hungary (home) and Armenia (away).
"Everybody's fit... everybody wants to play," Hallgrimsson confirmed yesterday. That includes Bosun Lawal who was added to the squad on Monday. The 22-year-old Stoke City man, blighted by injuries last season, can operate as a defensive midfielder or centre-back. He was called in because Josh Honohan and Jack Taylor were slight doubts after Friday's 1-1 draw against Senegal. Both players trained on Monday.
Taylor, Kasey McAteer and Killian Phillips all got runouts four days ago, with Hallgrimsson promising to give other fresh faces a shot tonight.
Troy Parrott sat out the Senegal game as he recovered from a bug but is in line to get some minutes, while the likes of Jake O'Brien, Evan Ferguson and Festy Ebosele will hope for involvement from the start. Meanwhile Shamrock Rovers defender Honohan and imposing Reims 21-year-old John Joe Patrick Finn are sure to be anxiously waiting for the nod to potentially make their senior debuts.
Hallgrimsson has been talking up Luxembourg's threat, pointing to their 1-0 friendly win against Sweden in March.
However all is not serene in the opposition camp.
They were poor in a defeat 1-0 to Slovenia last Friday, but that was overshadowed by supporter protests against the selection of Rodrigues, the matchwinner in Dublin.
In April, an appeals court upheld an 18-month suspended prison sentence Rodrigues on multiple cases of assault against his ex-partner, former Miss Luxembourg Emilie Boland.
The Luxembourg Football Federation issued a statement apologising for the removal of protest banners by stewards at Stade de Luxembourg during the game, saying: "Dialogue, listening, and transparency remain fundamental values of the federation."
Further protests are expected tonight.
"It's not a distraction, no," manager Luc Holtz said in a tetchy pre-match press conference.
"The focus is on the pitch and everything outside the pitch does not distract the team and has not distracted the team."
On the pitch it's been largely underwhelming bar that surprise win against the Swedes. Luxembourg only have two clean sheet in their their last 13 matches, and they're finding goals hard to come by too. Holtz's team have lost three of their last five home clashes so they look vulnerable here.
Hallgrimsson insisted he'd value a quality performance over a positive result, though both would be ideal as Ireland look to get into the habit of winning football matches.
"For all of us, it's important to win the game, even though in a friendly I would pick performance above winning," the boss added.
"If we have a good performance, if we continue to improve in what we are doing, even though we are unlucky and lose the game, I would probably take that more than a win if we are continuing to develop the team."
There's a growing body of evidence that these Irish players are buying into the head coach's vision. It helps that Hallgrimsson has shown himself to be canny and astute, his tactical tweaks playing to the strengths of the assets he has at his disposal.
Tonight is about getting a glimpse at hungry fringe men while further honing Hallgrimsson's preferred shape.
There's no more trial runs after this, as Ireland enter a condensed qualification campaign desperate for early momentum to further embolden those daring to believe something special could happen on the road to Canada, Mexico and the USA.
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