Similar to the GAA’s Allianz League, international friendlies, and the results, often come with quite the caveat.
"Sure it’s only the league" is the often-heard line among supporters and pundits alike, while victories in international friendlies are sometimes held in the same esteem.
Losses too aren’t the end of the world, unless it is a sequence of defeats, balanced out by a reshuffling of personnel and strategies to evaluate the bigger picture.
Martin O’Neill’s Republic of Ireland stewardship began four and half years ago on a crisp night in November.
Latvia came and went following a 3-0 defeat, the first of eight successive friendly encounters before Aiden McGeady got the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign off to a winning start in Tbilisi the following September.
O’Neill has a 39% winning record in his 46 games in charge, with the most recent outing, the 5-1 reversal at home to Denmark in the World Cup play-offs, certainly the most brutal of his 12 losses as Ireland manager.
Half of those dozen defeats have come in friendly matches, though even the most loyal Irish supporter could be forgiven for failing to recall how we have fared in recent years outside of qualifiers, play-offs and Euro 2016 duty.
For the record, O’Neill has an even split of six wins, draws and losses from 18 games in charge, very much a middle of the road tally.
When you consider two-thirds of those games have been at the Aviva Stadium – plus the Euro 2016 warm-up in Turners Cross - you might have expected a better return. Two of those six victories have come against the all-too familiar Oman.
Antalya represents just a fifth non-competitive outing on the road, and just the second in a non-neutral venue following on from the 0-0 draw in Poznan four years ago in O’Neill’s second game in charge.
A 0-0 draw was Ireland’s lot against Italy at Craven Cottage in May 2014, while the subsequent summer tour of America saw Ireland draw 1-1 with Costa Rica in Pennsylvania before a 5-1 thumping at the hands of Portugal at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Two years later and Mexico would inflict a 3-1 defeat at the same venue.
That game in particular seems to have few scars for O’Neill and indicates his thinking around friendly internationals.
"We played a couple of lads back in the USA and tried the system, the three at the back with two wing-backs, and the result, when you are well beaten by Mexico in the game, personally I wouldn't have been too concerned about it," he said this week.
That night he handed first starts to Daryl Horgan and Callum O’Dowda and gave debuts to Kevin Long and Alan Browne, with Cyrus Christie and James McClean deployed in somewhat unfamiliar wing-back roles.
Turkey affords O’Neill a similar fresh opportunity, with eight uncapped players hoping to make their bow. The manager has been keen to stress that while they will be eager to impress, it’s not all down to how they perform on the day.
"The thing that is really important here is that why while they might be under a bit of pressure to try to perform well here, hopefully it wouldn't be the end of the world if somebody didn't do well," he said.
"I think club form in the next couple of months will have some sort of impact on them. There are quite a number of lads here who know they haven't played much football, so in this exuberant effort to try to impress, I would want them to settle down in the game."
The result is very much of secondary importance with the bigger picture the depth of his squad. After the pressure cooker of World Cup play-offs, it will be an altogether different proposition for O’Neill’s callow squad in Antalya.
Follow Turkey v the Republic of Ireland via our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the News Now App, or watch exclusive terrestrial coverage on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 5.00pm with kick-off in Antalya at 5.30pm.
