A decade on from one of the most celebrated afternoons in Northern Ireland's footballing history, Michael O'Neill insists his young squad must concentrate on forging its own path rather than dwelling on past glories.
Ten years ago in Lyon, Northern Ireland produced a famous win over Ukraine at Euro 2016, a result still fondly remembered by supporters for Gareth McAuley's header, Niall McGinn's celebration, and the hailstorm that briefly interrupted play. That victory remains a defining moment for the nation's football fans, but as Northern Ireland prepare to meet Ukraine again - this time in a Nations League fixture staged in Slovakia because of the ongoing war in Ukraine - O'Neill is adamant that nostalgia should not shape his team's mentality.
"We don't keep reflecting back on that game and telling the players this is what we aspire to be," O'Neill told BBC Sport NI in Trnava. "This team hopefully can write its own history and we have to allow them to do that."
The current squad bears little resemblance to the one that lit up France in 2016. Only Josh Magennis and Paddy McNair remain from that era, with McNair, now 31, among the more experienced figures in a squad built largely around emerging talent. Former captain Steven Davis, once a mainstay of that Euro 2016 side, is now part of O'Neill's coaching staff rather than on the pitch.
The youthfulness of the group is striking. Players such as Ceadach O'Neill and Braiden Graham were just eight years old when Northern Ireland beat Ukraine in Lyon. Even more established names in the current setup, including Trai Hume, Shea Charles, Isaac Price and Brodie Spencer, were still years away from sitting their GCSEs at the time. The average age of the starting eleven in Northern Ireland's recent win over Georgia was only 23, dropping to 22.5 for the subsequent draw with Hungary.
While O'Neill is reluctant to use the 2016 squad as a direct template, he acknowledged that past players can still serve as a benchmark for ambition. "We may use certain examples of players from those games at Euro 2016 - the likes of Steven Davis, Jonny Evans, Gareth McAuley or Stuart Dallas - as good examples for players to aspire to be," he said. "But for me, this team is about the future and what lies ahead."
That future, for O'Neill, is centred on guiding this emerging generation toward the 2028 European Championship, which would mark Northern Ireland's first major tournament appearance since the heroics of 2016. Their current Nations League campaign has started promisingly in League B2: a dramatic late winner from Shea Charles secured victory away in Georgia, before a resilient, goalless draw at home to Hungary, despite visible fatigue following a 5,000-mile round trip to Tbilisi. Northern Ireland also managed to subdue Paris Saint-Germain forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in their opening match.
Ahead of Friday's clash, O'Neill labelled Ukraine as favourites, noting that manager Andrea Maldera made ten changes between a 1-0 win over Hungary and a goalless draw with Georgia - a sign, in his view, of the squad's depth. Unlike the individual brilliance of Kvaratskhelia or Hungary's Dominik Szoboszlai, O'Neill sees Ukraine's threat as more collective.
"Ukraine's strength is in their collective as a team, rather than what we faced against Georgia with Kvaratskhelia and Hungary with Szoboszlai, who are top European players," he said. "I think that Ukraine have many players that have potential to be on that level and go to the big, big clubs in Europe. We haven't highlighted any one individual, but we've looked very closely at how they play, with the ball and without the ball, and I believe their strength is in the collective of the team."
Based on reporting from BBC Sport.