Northern Ireland boss Tanya Oxtoby says there's "no pressure" on her team as they are prepare to embrace the Aviva Stadium stage.
Oxtoby took the reins in mid-August, ending an eight-month period in which the North had no permanent successor to Kenny Shiels, who departed last January.
The Australian previously served as Emma Hayes' assistant at Chelsea, and brings plenty of experience and nous to the role. But her first game at the helm is a real challenge - a blockbuster UEFA Nations League derby against the Republic of Ireland in front of a huge crowd at Lansdowne Road.
The FAI said on Friday that over 38,000 tckets had been sold for the occasion, and Oxtoby is confident her team - 23 places lower than their hosts in the world rankings - will rise to it.
"The pressure is not necessarily on us," she said.
"We're coming here to test ourselves against a team that's come from a major tournament, [which is] where we want to be. From our point of view there’s going to be some fantastic parts to the game, there’s going to be parts where we’re going to learn a fair bit about where we’re at, so we’re comfortable with that I think.
"Whilst it’s going to be a fantastic occasion, and there’s going to be a little bit of nerves which is completely normal and natural, there’s no pressure as such from our point of view.
"One thing I know is these guys, they want to win. They are really competitive, even when they are out there playing table-tennis, the balls are flying everywhere. That’s the mentality and the mindset that we want in this group and that was the reason why I took this job."
Northern Ireland made it to the Euros in England last year under the guidance of Shiels, but a squad with large contingent of part-time players hasn't really kicked on since that breakthrough.
Veteran captain Marissa Callaghan, now 38, acknowledged it's difficult to come out of a major tournament and quickly rouse yourself for another qualification campaign and the Cliftonvlle defender is hoping to catch the Girls in Green cold. However, she believes the Girls in Green have an obvious advantage considering the bulk of their panel are playing in professional environments.
"It is tough off the back of a tournament," she said. "For us it's a little bit different. A lot of us are in a part-time environment, so when we finished with the Euros we had to go back to our full-time jobs and kind of go back to that.
"It’s slightly different for the Ireland girls, they go back to their professional clubs. Obviously I haven’t been involved in one myself so I don’t know what the processes are, but again for us, we focus on us, we focus on the task at hand tomorrow.
"It’s going to be an amazing occasion for everyone. We’ll have 37,000 tickets sold for it, it’s a home nations clash of two countries in Ireland. It’s going to be an exciting game hopefully."
Earlier this month Callaghan was selected as one of 19 past and present players and coaches to be on the UEFA Football Board, which gathered in Switzerland to discuss some key issues in the women's game.
"The big thing for UEFA is they want to help the kind of lesser nations to come and be on an equal playing field," she said of the meeting.
"They want to hear from every single part of the women’s game so it was a really good meeting that we had among each other . Hopefully it’ll help steer the women’s game forward.
"We've been on a journey for the last five years. Reaching the Euros completely exploded the game within Northern Ireland.
"We have more young girls getting involved at grassroots level, more clubs starting, more girls wanting to reach the highest playing level.
"For me, it’s been small stepping stones and hopefully we keep growing. The girls want to be role models for our young players. We’re a small country and have girls looking at us saying they want to play one day for Northern Ireland or a coach."
Watch Republic of Ireland v Northern Ireland in the UEFA Nations League on Saturday from 12.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to live commentary on RTÉ 2fm
