World Cup 2026 European qualifying Group A, matchday 6: Northern Ireland v Luxembourg (Windsor Park, Monday 7.45pm)
A HOME game against lowly Luxembourg hardly seems like ideal preparation for the requirement of an away victory against a leading team in next March's World Cup play-offs, but the Northern Ireland camp is united in taking this match seriously.
A 'dead rubber' certainly provides the opportunity to bounce back after two galling defeats, 1-0 losses against Germany and Slovakia which ended any hopes of second spot in this group.
However, despite manager Michael O'Neill's anger and frustration about the manner of the defeat in Kosice on Friday night, he insisted that the damage was "minimal".
"If you look at what we gave up, second place would have had us in Pot 3, so the damage is minimal really, let's be honest."
Going into Pot 4 as a complicated consequence of winning their Nations League group means that NI will be pitted against one of the four top ranked teams in next Thursday's draw.
Italy are almost certainly among those, probably Turkiye, Ukraine, and Poland - although Germany could be in the mix if they lose at home to Slovakia on Monday night.
Similarly, Denmark and/or Austria could also come into contention if they are beaten in their last group games.
With all those potential opponents in mind, it's hard to think about Luxembourg.
O'Neill did his best, commenting at one stage of his media conference: "We're talking about things in the past here. We're talking about the game Friday night, and referees.
"We have a game tomorrow night, we're looking towards that, so my focus is there."
Yet even the thought of Luxembourg leads on to the demands of the play-off next spring.
The only competitive victories on the road during his second spell in charge have come against tonight's opponents - in the group opener - and San Marino.
Even so, O'Neill has hope that a vital away victory can be achieved: "I think we went through a phase of a team that probably wasn't equipped, that was very, very young in areas to deal with that.
"I think that we learned from those games. This is a newer team.
"In the Nations League, we drew away in Luxembourg and against Belarus in a neutral venue, which was a difficult game, and we lost in Bulgaria.
"This [the World Cup play-off semi-final] is a one-off game. I don't think it matters so much, that our away form is that significant.
"What we do take is, obviously, we've had three away games in this campaign and I think we've given a good account of ourselves in every game in terms of level of performance. We've not been beaten easily.
"If we can go to Germany and play as we did, and we can go to Slovakia and play as we did, if we can play away from home full-strength in March, then we have to believe that we can get a result."
As for Monday night's match, O'Neill will have to make at least two changes to the side which started in Slovakia, with both the harshly-dismissed Daniel Ballard and booked George Saville missing out through suspension.
Midfielder Ethan Galbraith is available again after serving a one-game ban, but striker Jamie Reid - who came on for Dion Charles for the second half in Kosice - has a back problem.
So has goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell, who sat out training. but given that he was partly at fault for the Slovakia goal he may well have been replaced by Conor Hazard or Luke Southwood anyway.
Even with midfielders Shea Charles and Ali McCann still on the injured list, the hosts should have enough to finish this stage of qualification how they started it, with a win, against Luxembourg.