Things were a bit different for Ireland and Germany on May 29th, 1994.
An international friendly was scheduled as a warm up for the 1994 World Cup, the Irish returned to Stuttgart, and once again we left with good memories.
Paul McGrath and Phil Babb were rocks at the back, Germany's jersey was sensational, and Gary Kelly bagged his first international goal.
Here are the teams that lined out for both sides, just look at those names.
That's an Irish team boasting players from Manchester United, Liverpool, Leeds, Aston Villa, and Chelsea, going toe-to-toe with the likes of Lothar Matthaus, Mario Basler, Matthias Sammer, and Jurgen Klinsmann.
And we turned them over.
That match came shortly after we beat Holland, also in a friendly, so we were entering USA 94 having beaten two of the very best teams in Europe, and the type of countries that would have been talked about in terms of winning the whole thing.
So what has changed?
Well, we now have no players playing at the likes of Manchester United or Liverpool, and are instead fielding players who in some cases are struggling to secure playing time in the Championship, and we would only manage to qualify for one more World Cup and one European Championship in the 11 years since that game.
Our German friends went on to win Euro 96, reach the final of the 2002 World Cup, host the 2006 World Cup where they were eliminated on penalties, reach the final of Euro 2008, and then win the 2014 World Cup.
In 1994 we reached a peak World FIFA ranking of #9, we are now #54.
In 1994 Germany reached a peak World FIFA ranking of #5, they are now #2.
Oh, and of course Gilsey's hair is far less amusing now.
Still, while we may not have star names in our side and the Germans are forced to leave some truly excellent players out of the squad, football isn't played on paper. And anyone who needed a reminder of that should look no further than John O'Shea's equaliser in Gelsenkirchen:
COME ON YOU BOYS IN GREEN!
