The memories of a near miss and a departed friend will swirl as Chris Coleman aims to lead Wales to a place in the last-16 of Euro 2016.
Victory over Russia in Toulouse on Monday will guarantee progress to the knockout stages in Wales first appearance at a major international tournament since 1958.
That barren run almost came to an end at Euro 2004, only for Wales to miss out in a play-off against Russia for a place at the finals in Portugal.
Coleman was able to eventually break the duck with the help of a talented generation, spearheaded by Real Madrid superstar Gareth Bale.
The side first started to come together under Coleman s immediate predecessor Gary Speed, who tragically committed suicide in November 2011.
Speedy s always in my thoughts but not because of football, I knew Gary since he was 10, the Wales manager said at his pre-match news conference.
It s not just because I m at a tournament that he s in my thoughts. He s in my thoughts as a friend.
I don t need a game of football to remind me of Gary Speed. He s always there.
Speed played when Wales lost 1-0 to a Vadim Evseev goal in Cardiff to end their Euro 2004 ambitions.
It is a night Coleman recalls all too vividly, but he insists the latest meeting between the two countries has enough at stake already without attempting to label it as a revenge mission.
I remember, it was heartbreaking and it wasn t the first time for me It happened in [qualifying for the 1994 World Cup] against Romania, he said, recalling Paul Bodin s infamous penalty miss on the earlier occasion.
It was heartbreaking, hence the celebrations when we made it this time around.
But we re a different Welsh team to that Welsh team then. This is a different Russian team.
So I can t say my message to my players is that we re going to make up for that loss. This is a different era. It s about now. That was a long time ago.
He added: Before the England game there was all the talk and I said let s just get down to the football .
That s all we ve ever done. That s why we re sitting here. We don t get bogged down with all the bits and bobs outside of our group. It s about these players and what they can achieve.
