A nation held it's breathe and would eventually exhale in exhilaration.
But as always in life, concluding narratives often revolve the end result.
Jack Charlton's Ireland may have reached a World Cup quarter-final in 1990 at the first attempt, but as anyone who was around at the time, the journey itself was fraught with difficulty.
Indeed, today is the 25th anniversary of the disappointing 0-0 group stage draw against Egypt. Six days earlier in Cagliari, Kevin Sheedy's goal had salvaged a creditable 1-1 result against the English, but by the time Ireland landed on the shores of Sicily to face the Egyptians in Sicily, the expectations were of a victory that would put us well in the conversation for a place in the knockout stages.
In the end, a 1-1 draw in the final group game against the Netherlands did the job - and thanks to Sepp Blatter we also avoided eventual champions West Germany in the last-16 - to progress.
But that interim period in the wake of the Egypt result launched recriminations with pundit Eamon Dunphy at the fore, as this portion of The Charlton Years documentary recounts:
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