It's been raining all morning in Amsterdam, which means the thousands of Ireland fans who have travelled are set to seek indoor pursuits to pass the time on matchday in this great European city.
Those planned canal cruises may get bumped for some of the many other attractions that are available in this excellent Dutch destination.
The Van Gogh Museum, perhaps, for those fans who appreciate the beauty that Stephen Kenny is trying to bring to the national team or some of the city's many sites of historical significance, for those who would prefer to consign his tenure to the past.
But one they might all enjoy ahead of an away day against one of the European superpowers is to pay homage to a local hero and take a stadium tour before the madness kicks in for the late 8:45pm kick-off.
Built in the mid-90s and originally known as the Amsterdam Arena, the stadium was renamed in 2018 to honour the Ajax, Netherlands and global footballing icon Johann Cruyff who died in 2016.
The Johan Cruyff Arena now has an increased capacity of 55,000, yet when you walk around the interior if feels smaller than the Aviva Stadium, which means that there really isn’t a bad seat in the house.
The retractable roof will be closed tonight, which should really increase the decibel levels for a home crowd that are renowned to be noisy, aided, no doubt, by the well-oiled Irish contingent who will be happy to get into the party mood.
It is not too often that Ireland get to play an international game "indoors", however, the last time that they did play with the roof closed, they did quite well, as Robbie Brady might tell you about the night his headed goal saw off the Italians and sent the team into the knock-out stages of Euro 2016.
Stephen Kenny himself took time during the week to pay his respects to one of the greats and while many in Ireland are against what the manager is trying, you might imagine that Mr Cryuff, at least, would approve.
"He played before my time, but I read his book for sure and, obviously, I'm very aware of him and his history and the history of Dutch football.
"He's had a big influence on not only Dutch football but Spanish football particularly and because of that, world football."
And Kenny had a chance to take over the stadium for a couple of hours for the pre-match press conference, followed by an hour’s training in matchday conditions with the roof closed on Friday night.
The manager gave little away at the press conference, and must have been sitting on the news of Chiedozie Ogbene missing out or expecting a minor miracle considering the player’s ankle was too sore to even get his boots on properly.
Better news came in the way of Evan Ferguson being fit and raring to go but otherwise, the manager revealed very little other than his standard line in the build up to this game that it’s great to play one of the really big teams away from home in a competitive encounter.
Kenny is obliged to bring a player with him to such events, and while the captain is often the man picked to sit alongside at the top table, Alan Browne is unlikely to lead out the team tonight with Shane Duffy most likely to enjoy that honour.
Browne, however, "is captaincy material. I'm sure that will happen in the future", said the manager when asked the question, but the Preston midfielder does look set to start against the Dutch.
The Cork man described tonight’s game as a "free hit" for the Irish players and thinks that it will allow the team to play with a bit more freedom, while offering insight into how the squad have appraised their time under the current manager.
"Certainly, since I first came in, in terms of team performances, we have definitely come a long way, we know that as players and staff. We have been in it together and just come up short in terms of results.
"When you try to go toe to toe with those teams and you’re not far off, you can take bit of credit, bit of confidence from that," said Browne, when asked was morale low due to the results.
"We try and stay as positive as we can. Not saying we’re happy to lose games. We’re obviously disappointed after every game we lose, even draws to a certain extent. We reflect on those games, we analyse them. When you see it back and see all the positives and the moments that have cost you, you kind of think there’s not an awful lot in it."
The Netherlands can secure qualification with a victory tonight and Browne also said the Ireland lads are hoping to spoil the party at the Arena tonight.
But it would appear, that whatever the result, the main party pooper is going to be sitting in the opposition dug-out.
"There is no party," said Ronald Koeman, who acknowledged that his side were fully expected to qualify.
"We will party if we win the European Championship."
Watch the Netherlands v Republic of Ireland on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player tonight from 7pm, follow a live blog on www.rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to commentary on RTÉ 2fm.
