The defeat to Armenia might still be fresh in the memory for Heimir Hallgrimsson and the Ireland squad, however, victory is the only thing on the agenda as the return game takes place at Aviva Stadium this evening.
Ireland were surprisingly beaten in Yerevan last month, as the group's lowest seeds put in an impressive performance to put a huge dent in the national team’s World Cup ambitions.
Ireland have the chance to bounce back tonight to right that particular wrong and in the process, kick-start their World Cup campaign with second place still to play for.
Hallgrimsson is treating the opposition with full respect having witnessed up close and personal an ever-improving Armenian side, adding significantly to their game under new manager, Yegishe Melikyan, who only took charge of the national team in August.
As a result, the Ireland coach urged caution ahead of tonight’s must-win game, outlining how the opponents differ from Armenia teams of the past.
"Be ready for them," is what Hallgrimsson will tell his players ahead of tonight’s game. "These are their threats, their strength, the running power, the individual skills, and their fighting spirit."
"Probably the biggest change from the new coach is their fighting spirit," he added, remarking on their more-focused approach under Melikyan.
"How we analysed them before our game was the second game for the new coach, and it's a total change of that team. For me, I would say it's a mental change for Armenia.
"There's more intensity in everything they are doing, and more aggression in them from the games before, the games that we analysed.
"So it's a total change in mentality. Their individual skill has always been there, they can use their speed and running power and individual dribbling skills to hurt us, but on top of that, there was this aggression that is now in this team that was not before this coach."
Nathan Collins memorably did a television interview straight after that defeat and was at a loss to explain what happened out on the pitch, and now, a month later, the defender said that he still cannot make sense of the performance.
"No, not really," said Collins, who joined Hallgrimsson at the pre-match press conference. "It's such an awkward one. The only thing I ever say is 'it's just football’. Football is such a mad sport. Anything can happen.
"Things change. It happens so quickly. Momentum, how players feel. It's just confidence. There are so many small things that add into a lot of big things. Games change so quickly.
"We just never got going. I think they grew in confidence with that from us struggling to get going, create stuff, be together.
"The togetherness we've seen in Portugal and the way we are connected as an XI was a completely different way we were connected together in Armenia.
"I think Armenia took confidence from that. They took that confidence away from us. They probably had better chances, better spells, and they looked a better team.
"From everything we've been through since Heimer's been in, it really hurt because we knew as a team we were so much better than that. I think that's what the message was as well before Portugal. We are so much better than that."
Collins believes that his career, as a result of clubs that he has played for, has seen its fair share of lost matches, and he admitted that he hates the feeling that comes with defeat, however, it has allowed him to learn how to process it and move on.
"I hate losing, to be honest. I really hate it. In my career, I've lost a lot," said the Ireland captain.
"You lose games and you have to pick yourself back up. You have to get back on the horse and go again, the next game, you might lose, it takes so much out of you, but it's that fire inside me where I hate losing.
"I always want to change. I always want to turn that around and just be a winner, be a winning team. Win games, win against the big teams, win against the small teams.
"It's the will to get up again and go again."
And despite the years of little return following big performances, just like Saturday evening in Portugal, Collins believes that the spirit is building within the Ireland squad among likeminded individuals who share the same mentality and want to succeed with the national team.
"I don't think people understand how hard it is," said Collins. "For me personally, I wouldn't be able to keep that going if I didn't have good people around me, whether it's my family, whether it's my friends, whether it's my teammates.
"I need people around me to motivate me. In the moments when you're down and you want to feel sorry for yourself, it is hard to keep going.
"We're all going in the same direction. Luckily enough, I think in this squad, we have good people here.
"Caoimhín now is my teammate. He has that. He always wants to win. He's coming from a winning team from Liverpool. He has that habit of winning and that's something good. The other lads I'm very close with here, they all want to win. They all want to succeed.
"If we can all help each other with that, if we can all give each other that bit of fire we have inside of us, it creates a team.
"It creates a team fire, you could say, and we go and do that on Tuesday."
Watch Republic of Ireland v Armenia in World Cup qualifying on Tuesday 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 an extended Game On programme on RTÉ 2fm.
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