When the Shamrock Rovers team bus pulls in towards the Aker Stadion in northwestern Norway, the waterside venue will be quite familiar to most of the Hoops' players.
Almost two and a half years ago, Stephen Bradley's side took on the home side Molde there in the UEFA Conference League group stages but ended up losing 3-0.
A week later, the Norwegians came away from Tallaght Stadium with a 2-0 victory.
If Rovers have been harbouring any long-held ambitions to avenge those defeats, they have not had to wait long for that opportunity to arise - and the context has shifted markedly.
The Conference League underwent a revamp for this season with the introduction of a 'League Phase' to replace the group stages and Shamrock Rovers thrived en route to booking their place in the first knockout stage.
Molde also made it through to this play-off phase - but barely - squeezing through in 23rd place of the 24 teams to advance from the opening phase, while also enduring an indifferent domestic campaign.
Since then they have appointed a new manager in former men's and women's national team boss Per-Mathias Høgmo and lost a friendly in Spain to St Patrick's Athletic earlier this month as they build towards both Thursday and the start of the Norwegian league season which does not kick off until the end of March.
So as fate - or more precisely the format would have it - Rovers and Molde have been pitched together in the play-off round with Bradley's side on the road for Thursday's first leg.
And according to former Hoops defender Graham Gartland, compared to the October 2022 head-to-heads, this tie, which sandwiches Sunday's highly-anticipated Aviva Stadium derby against Bohemians, will be more of a toss-up as to who goes through to the last-16.
"I think the game is in the balance, I really do," Gartland told the RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
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"When you combine the results of similar teams that they played, Molde beat Larne 3-0, Rovers obviously went up and beat Larne really, really well; Molde lost at home to APOEL and Rovers drew 1-1 with them."
However, since the end of last season, Shamrock Rovers have been shorn of pace up front. Striker Johnny Kenny has returned to Celtic after his loan spell, Neil Farrugia signed for Barnsley and Darragh Burns opting to join Grimbsy has also seen another creative outlet go out the door.
In midfield, Estonia international Markus Poom started regularly in the European games, bringing a degree of athleticism and size to the engine room but he has also left after the end of his loan deal.
"I do feel their front two in Europe was what gave them that hope in games," Gartland said of Kenny and Farrugia's influence on the continental journey.
"They could absorb pressure knowing that they had a threat and once you have a threat, you'll stay in the games, knowing that all it takes is one (goal) and it happened in some of the games.
"I think the legs in midfield, Darragh Nugent played a little bit as well and brought a lot of legs. But I think they're looking at (Matt) Healy coming in and they might play Healy beside (Gary) O'Neill and (Dylan) Watts and then one off the front."
Gartland also feels the two-legged nature of the tie could also lean in Rovers' favour compared to if it was a group fixture or the one-off matches that populated the new 'League Phase'.
"This is different to the group stages. It's not a one-off game," he said.
"So they can feel their way into this and see what Molde are like. I think it's a tie in the balance, this one could go either way. I'd actually fancy probably Rovers a little bit considering how well they did in the group stages.
"Rovers finished 10th in the group and Molde finished 23rd and they got through with a last-minute 4-3 at home just to scrape into that.
"On form, especially in the European competitions, I think Rovers would be slight favourites going into the game."
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