Preview: Winding road to Greece can kickstart Euro 2024 campaign

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail; a phrase once flung in the face of the Ireland management team, yet one that certainly could not be aimed at the current crop ahead of tonight's Euro 2024 qualifier in Athens.

Stephen Kenny’s side have arrived in the Greek capital, probably more prepared than any other Ireland international outfit ever for a one-off game.

The Ireland squad have been kept very busy since the end of the club season in England and they will take to the field at the OPAP Arena tonight off the back of something close to that of a pre-tournament schedule.

It all kicked off with a week-long training camp in Bristol for the Championship contingent, followed by another section adhering to personalised training plans, ahead of the nine-day, warm-weather acclimatisation in the Turkish resort of Antalya.

Granted, there are two qualifiers in this June international window, however, the second is a home game that should easily be negotiated against Gibraltar.

A "historic win" is what the Ireland manager is asking of his players, acknowledging the importance of picking up maximum points in these games, when you are competing with the Netherlands and France for the two automatic places at next year’s tournament.

Far from a foregone conclusion, however, as there really is not a whole lot between the teams on paper, nor the FIFA world rankings as Ireland’s 49th plays Greece’s 52nd.

A victory would at least send out a signal of intent for the remainder of Ireland’s qualification campaign and will certainly make the Dutch sit up and pay attention, if that had not already been noted following a fine performance against the French in the opener.

Ireland, as mentioned, have been building for this game over the past six weeks, yet in