Everything you need to know for the big game tonight
Just as expected, as soon as the Irish squad boarded the plane for Czechia, so too did thousands of Irish fans; many of them with their parrot memorabilia in hand, or on their shoulder.
Let's not jinx it, but you can almost feel it in the air….
The last time we graced the World Cup stage was 2002, and the average age of our squad is just 27, meaning most of our players won't even remember the mania this caused.
IF it happens, and that's a big if, we will look back on this campaign of qualification as one of the most memorable.
Below is all you need to know heading into our do-or-die fixture against Czechia.
How did we get here?
In November, Troy Parrott sent the nation into mayhem when toe tipped the ball past Péter Gulácsi with the last kick of the ball. Footage from that day will be etched in our memory for years to come.
Dublin Airport almost renamed itself “Troy Parrott Airport”, while videos from around the country showed people biting their nails watching the dying embers in the strangest of places. Including shopping centres and Dublin Airport’s bar.
There was a campaign before that, though, and you would be forgiven for forgetting about that outstanding performance in Dublin, defeating Portugal convincingly, who are ranked number six in the world.
Prior to that, we beat Armenia, in a strong response to losing 2-1 to the same team in Yerevan, which at the time caused even the most optimistic of Irish fans to doubt our chances of qualifying.
Drawing at home to a 10-man Hungary and narrowly losing to Portugal put an early dampener on our chances at the start of the campaign.
What happens now?
This year is a bit different; it's just a single game, rather than the home and away legs. So Ireland needs to defeat Czechia by any means necessary tonight; the possibility of extra time also looms, so we could be in for a long night.
That's not the end of it, though, if we win tonight, we go into a play off final against Denmark or North Macedonia, whoever wins their game tonight.
Let's just get tonight over with first, then worry about the next one, and if we do win, ban everyone you know from mentioning the 2018 play-off against Denmark!
Where can you watch?
RTÉ are covering the event across RTÉ Player, RTÉ Radio One and RTÉ 2. Live coverage will start at 7.pm with kick off being 7.45pm.
One final note: Come On You Boys in Green!