Four months is a long time to wait, but Ireland finally get a chance to banish their Wembley nightmare as they take the field at the Hristo Botev Stadium in Plovdiv tonight.
The result that night in the English capital – a 5-0 humbling following a second-half collapse – proved immaterial, however, the performance left Ireland reeling with Heimir Hallgrimsson's short-lived tenure coming under intense scrutiny.
Ireland were already consigned to third place in that Nations League group, which has resulted in this relegation/promotion decider with Bulgaria, with the first leg away from home, intended to suit the higher seed.
It has been a tough few years for the Ireland national team, yet they still enjoy a fair bit of distance between themselves and tonight’s opponents in the FIFA world rankings.
Hallgrimsson’s side fell out of the top 50 back in June 2023 and maintained their downward spiral throughout the final days of the Stephen Kenny era, now currently hovering in and around number 60 on the list.
But if you think Ireland have it bad, Bulgaria, the one-time World Cup semi-finalists (USA 94), the team of Hristo Stoichkov and Yordan Letchkov, who guided the national side to number eight in the world rankings, now sit in the lowly position of 82nd.
Dimitar Berbatov must have seen something coming, as he called time on his international career in 2010 while still a Manchester United player and yet to turn 30.
Two years later, Bulgaria had dropped fifty places from mid-forties right down as low as 96th position and have sat lower than 70th throughout the last four years.
So it should be a straightforward two-leg aggregate victory for the Irish then?
Well perhaps not. The current selection have enjoyed a consistent run of form over the past couple of years, and while their level of opponent has to be taken into consideration, they are proving tough to beat and hard to penetrate.
Aside from that one time when they went to Belfast and lost 5-0, of course.
Hallgrimsson has been at pains to emphasise all week that that particular performance is a complete outlier in relation to their overall performances and form throughout the tenure of current manager Ilian Iliev.
"That was an outlier," said Hallgrimsson, speaking at the pre-match press conference.
"They conceded five goals, but they were missing five players, missed a penalty and hit the crossbar, it was a day off for them.
"It's an impressive run of results in the last 10 games, five clean sheets, so they are a tough team to break down, they have had really good results here in Plovdiv and I understand why they wanted to play here."
It is a matter of courtesy among international managers to offer opponents respect before games, however, Hallgrimsson does appear to have a real appreciation of what the current manager is attempting to do with his side, and spoke about Bulgaria along the same lines of how he was hoping to set Ireland up against England at Wembley and focusing on the collective.
"The strength of the Bulgarian team is collective, first of all," he explained. "It's an honest team; they are tactically solid, a tough team. It’s going to be a physical battle, they are compact and hard to break down, so that will be a test for us."
Having said that, it would also appear that Hallgrimsson sees his own side as the favourites going into this game and as a result, he should employ an attack-minded starting eleven to bring home a healthy advantage ahead of the Dublin game on Sunday.
The manager feels that his squad – again as a collective – are in a better place than recent windows as there are more players playing regularly at club level and he will hope to exploit that with a high-octane, yet controlled, performance.
As for the eleven that will start tonight, the manager is always keen to keep his cards close to his chest on the eve of matches, however, he was certainly dropping some insight as to where his thinking lay ahead of this first leg.
Caoimhin Kelleher is perhaps the least active of the three goalkeepers in the squad, however, the Liverpool man has served the manager well and it would be a major move to drop him in favour of Mark Travers or Gavin Bazunu.
Bazunu was the number one before injury, however, Hallgrimsson spoke about him at the squad announcement as if he was a new player coming in rather than an established member of the squad, so he is just getting to know the former Shamrock Rovers man during this camp.
Nathan Collins will captain the side, while Dara O’Shea is pretty much nailed on for a place alongside the skipper, and Robbie Brady looks set to start at left-back, which leaves the manager with a tricky decision to make on the right side of the four.
Hallgrimsson actually has four options to cover the right-back position with Jake O’Brien and Matt Doherty filling that role at Everton and Wolves respectively, while new recruits Jimmy Dunne and James Abankwah are doing likewise at QPR and Watford - they can all play centrally too if required.
Opting for three at the back would allow Hallgrimsson to include five of the aforementioned to start, which could see Collins again pushed into midfield, but if he is thinking about an attacking eleven he will just have to make the tough calls and stick with four.
Josh Cullen and Jason Knight should anchor midfield with Finn Azaz asked to sit up and link the play with the front man.
Troy Parrott cannot do much more at club level to impress the manager, so if he does not get the nod ahead of Ferguson tonight, there may be other factors at play in the manager’s assessment regarding his suitability to the system.
Hallgrimsson could also start Adam Idah up front with Parrott taking up a wider position, or vice versa, which leaves one place up for grabs, leaving the door open for a tricky winger with Mikey Johnston perhaps best suited to start based on experience.
All going to plan, the manager is most likely to keep his secret match-winning weapon on the bench to allow him to settle into the squad, however, this Ireland team have a habit of doing things the hard way and there is every chance that Rocco Vata could be sent on for the final 20-odd minutes to win the game and help Hallgrimsson arrive home with a winning margin for the deciding second leg on Sunday.
Watch Bulgaria v Republic of Ireland in the UEFA Nations League on Thursday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to live commentary on an extended 2fm's Game On.
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