October has been marked down in the calendar for quite some time for the Republic of Ireland.
After finishing second in their UEFA Women's Nations League group, the Girls in Green were guaranteed a promotion/relegation play-off against a League A team and out of the hat came Belgium.
Since the draw was made, Ireland have played world number one USA twice, losing 4-0 back-to-back in Colorado and Cincinnati late last month.
Belgium, meanwhile, were busy featuring at the ongoing Euro 2025 and their group in Switzerland was particularly tricky.
A 1-0 loss to Italy got them off on the wrong foot, before their elimination was confirmed following an entertaining and high-scoring defeat to World Cup holders and tournament favourites Spain.
However, they finished on a high note with a 2-1 win over Portugal. So with that in mind, what can Ireland take from the Belgians' performances at the European Championships ahead of October's two-legged showdown?
"Obviously the first game (against Italy) was disappointing for them and when we were watching it, we were kind of thinking, 'We're not miles off this' and we could even beat them," Shelbourne midfielder and former Ireland international Rachel Graham told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
"Against Spain, it's obviously a big task for them and they're not going to set up against us how they set up against Spain. You're just going to do your best to keep Spain out.
"And (Belgium) did get two goals against Spain and they're a big threat from setpieces. (Justine) Vanhaevermaet I think is six-foot-one. With the retirement of Louise Quinn, I don't think there's anybody who's going to really challenge her in the air, so that's going to be something that's going to be difficult for us."
Graham added that the tournament will also have allowed the Belgians to gel together further and the final group game victory over Portugal showed another facet of the threat they will pose.
"It was a much better showing than what they had shown in the first two games," she said of a side spearheaded by Inter Milan striker Tessa Wullaert.
"It's probably when I was watching thinking, 'God, we do have a tough game against us now in October'.
"They looked good when they were breaking away on the counter-attack. That's where we've looked a bit vulnerable in our recent few games, so definitely an area where we need to tidy up on especially now our back four has chopped and changed a bit and we still don't have an out-and-out right back which could prove to be an issue again in October."
Watch the Euro 2025 quarter-finals with live coverage from Wednesday to Saturday on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
