Heimir Hallgrimsson's Republic of Ireland side have done it the hard way; and that particular theme would continue into the final game of this incredibly dramatic World Cup qualifying campaign.
Just six games in three short months, but the journey from the opening night in Dublin right through to this incredible outing in Budapest, as Ireland beat Hungary 3-2, has captured every emotion available.
The failure to fire early on in the opening game against Hungary in Dublin left the national sie with a mountain to climb, eventually taking a hard-fought point in a game that finished 2-2, followed by a disastrous trip to Yerevan, getting beaten 1-0 by Armenia.
Two games in and the World Cup had already been written off, but for a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel that showed a path – a steep one admittedly – to the play-offs by aiming to finish second.
The performance was there in Lisbon, but again nothing to show as Ireland reached the midway point of the short, sharp campaign with just one point from the nine available.
They made hard work of it, but eventually got the win against Armenia to remain in the conversation heading into the final round of games.
Then another door appeared to close before a ball was even kicked, as Hungary scraped past Armenia to open a four-point gap as Ireland welcomed top seeds Portugal to Aviva Stadium.
Thursday night proved to be one of those special nights in Irish football, beating Portugal 2-0, which meant that Ireland could go to Budapest knowing that any sort of victory would be enough to get them through.
Four minutes into the final game of the campaign and the Puskas Arena erupted following Hungary’s early opener as Daniel Lukacs headed home from close range.
The manager admitted after the game that his side started "pretty poorly", but they began to work their way into the contest after ten minutes, and then they were handed a major boost as a VAR review resulted in a penalty kick for a challenge on Chiedozie Ogbene.
Thursday night’s goalscoring hero Troy Parrott took responsibility to get the team back on terms, and the Dubliner made it three in two games as he guided the ball into the bottom left corner.
The equaliser certainly threw the home side off their stride a touch, however, they were soon back in control of the tempo, and Caoimhín Kelleher managed to keep the game level in the 28th minute with a brilliant save from a point-blank Roland Sallai effort.
There was nothing Kelleher could do about what happened eight minutes later, however, as Barnabas Varga unleashed an unstoppable rocket to the top corner.
Taking nothing away from the incredible strike, delivered with flawless technique and catching it perfectly, but the Ireland defence seemed to switch off for a split second almost tempting the striker to hit it.
Hungary firmly back in control of the tie and just like the Dublin fixture, Ireland would go into the second half needing two goals to get the victory needed to stay in World Cup contention.
Ireland went all-in from the start of the second half as the changes started to happen with the team looking more and more attack-minded with Ryan Manning thrown in for his ability to create, while Adam Idah was added to the attack.
Not a whole lot of difference in truth as Hungary continued to look comfortable, and then two more subs were added with Johnny Kenny – a third striker – and Festy Ebosele coming on.
Structure going out the window a touch, and had Hungary shown a bit more belief they could have capitalised and finished the game off, again Kelleher kept Ireland in it with two good stops.
Approaching the final ten minutes, and Hungary were noticeably starting to sit in, while trying to slow the game down at every opportunity, and it looked like Ireland had too much to do in the little time remaining.
And then it all got very exciting as Finn Azaz played a delicate clipped ball into the path of Parrott, who had timed his run to perfection before dinking it over the advancing goalkeeper to level the game and set up a grandstand finish.
Kelleher again had to be alert to stop another Dominik Szoboszlai effort, affording Ireland the chance to throw everything at the hosts in the final moments of the ninety.
And that big chance would present itself as substitute Johnny Kenny raced in from the left with just the keeper to beat.
The former Sligo and Shamrock Rovers striker on for his international debut and a chance to win it for his country, but cruelly denied by the outstretched arm of Denes Dibusz who looked to have secured his country their place in the play-offs.
Five minutes to be added and aside from a couple of long throws, Ireland were unable to create.
But then, deep into the last chance saloon, Kelleher arrives up on the halfway line and clips a deliciously tempting ball into the mix.
Liam Scales would rise highest and help it goalwards, and who else, but Parrott right on cue to stretch and make the slightest of connections to take it past the keeper and into the back of the net.
Stunned silence around the ground as the hat-trick hero killed Hungary’s chances of making it to their first World Cup in a long time, but the Irish celebrated with equal enthusiasm both on the pitch and way up in the top tier of the arena as the travelling thousands enjoyed one of those rare moments in football that will never leave the memory.
The celebrations would continue down into the depts of the stadium and into the away team dressing room, the decibel levels making their way all the way across to the media centre ahead of the post-match press conference.
The Icelander, however, walked in as if just another normal day in Heimir’s world as he responded to the enthusiastic question about wondering had he ever experienced anything like that in his life.
"Yeah, I have," he said with a smile. "Dying minutes Iceland scored against Austria in the Euro finals was identical to this one. So, nice, but these moments you'll remember for the rest of your life when it happens like this.
Reflecting on the game, the manager felt that Hungary were the better side, but he believed that they got scared in the final stages, opening the door for the drama to unfold, and he lamented his own side’s first-half performance, again using the word passive to describe the showing.
"I think they got scared in the end, so they dropped off," said Hallgrimsson.
"I want to give them credit, they were probably better than us on the day, especially in the first half, we were struggling.
"We were passive, I don't know why we were scared in the beginning, but it looked like we were off, especially the first, I would say, 15 minutes.
"We started by conceding three or four corners in a row, they scored from one, four minutes, we are 1-0 down and we need two goals to qualify."
But qualify they did, and the manager reflected on those final stages while adding that the concession of the early goal probably worked to his side’s advantage in the grand scheme of things.
"The guys kept on believing and we kept on knocking and took chances, and when you take chances sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, and luckily for us it worked today," said the manager.
"We had three strikers up front in the end, and sometimes you're punished for doing things like this, but luckily for us we weren't today.
"I think in the end it was good to concede so early and we had time to recover, it's strange to say it, but we had more time to recover and basically had nothing to lose and that's what we said at half-time, we basically had nothing to lose."
