While Keith Treacy does not expect the Republic of Ireland to get anything from Saturday's World Cup qualifier in Portugal, the former Boys in Green winger believes Heimir Hallgrimsson's side will find that daunting task less complicated in some aspects than Armenia's visit to Dublin three days later.
Ireland are already on the back foot on the road towards the 2026 World Cup after following up last month's 2-2 draw at home to Hungary with a devastating defeat in Armenia.
With two games against a star-studded Portugal still to come, as well as a difficult trip to Budapest, there is already a sense that the campaign is over before it has truly got going.
Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, former international Treacy underlined that while Irish hopes were more than slim going to Lisbon, the mindset will be more straightforward than the revenge mission next Tuesday against Armenia at Aviva Stadium.
"I give us more of a chance in the Portugal game than I do against Armenia, and when I say a chance, I think we'll put it up to Portugal. I think we'll have a valiant loss. It'll be one where we'd be thinking; 'play like that again and we'll be alright', and then we'd probably take a step back again against Armenia as we so often do," he said.
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Treacy added that it feels like Ireland are almost more comfortable in backs-to-the-wall situations against the very elite in comparison to when expectation and the onus shifts towards them in encounters with less heralded opponents.
"Like Portugal coming up now, the players will know when they close their eyes before the game, when they're in the hotel, they'll smell it, they'll know they're coming up against world class (opposition)," he said.
"The way the media are around it, they will be prepared: 'We're going to suffer, we're not going to have a lot of the ball, it's going to be difficult, it's going to be hard, we're going to have to do all the dirty stuff and anything at the top end of the pitch in terms of set-pieces we've got to go for hell for leather'.
"But when we play a lower team, it's like the expectation is on us to open up and play and be pretty and make it nice, whereas it doesn't have to be.
"The onus will be on us to win the game. But the onus is not on us to win the game that way. We put those restraints on us ourselves and I think this Irish team is a lot more capable of defending and being on the back foot and springing out rather than saying we'll have a full court press and go toe to toe with people.
"I wouldn't say I'd have full confidence in us beating Armenia but I think we're a little bit more comfortable in that style of play that we'll play against Portugal because we'll drop back and we know we're going to give up possession, and we went very close to beating Portugal in the recent past."
He continued: "But there's always a mistake in us, even if we're on top, even if we're going forward. Sometimes when we have the ball in the opposition third, we're our own worst enemy because nobody is thinking about what happens if this breaks down. It's all about 'forward, forward, forward'.
"For all the evolution and moving forward and style of play and everything that's changed and gone 'back to basics', we still only look dangerous when we cross the ball. We don't look dangerous when we try and force it through the middle because we don't have the players to do that."
Watch Republic of Ireland Under-21s v Slovakia Under-21s in UEFA European Championship qualifying on Friday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
Watch Portugal v Republic of Ireland in World Cup qualifying on Saturday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to live radio commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
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