The infamous group of death in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, which Scotland agonisingly failed to get out of, was thought to have had it all.
There was a good Scottish team for starters, astutely led by first Walter Smith and then Alex McCleish.
Up against them were world champions Italy.
And if that wasn’t enough, so too were European champions France.
Oh, and Ukraine were quite good too.
But one ingredient it didn’t have, that the Euro 2016 version of the group of death does, is an international derby.
And the Scotland player who is most synonymous with the campaign of six years ago, Tartan Army darling James McFadden, admitted that prospect of a clash with celtic cousins the Republic of Ireland has brought home what he’s missing out on.
“It’s obviously a huge game,” the St Johnstone forward said. “The fact it’s against one of the other home nations makes it even bigger.
“I’ve never played in one like it.
“Ireland will bring a big support to Celtic Park. It will be a great game and it’s one I wish I was involved in.
“I don’t think we have to win it to qualify but we’ll definitely be looking to do that.”
McFadden admitted that this qualifying campaign is bringing back memories of Scotland’s best attempt at getting to a major finals under Smith and McCleish, when France were defeated home and away.
The two nations to go through weren’t decided until the last set of fixtures.
That could well be the case again next autumn, with Scotland, Germany, Ireland and Poland possibly all still in with a shout.
“It’s got that feel about it,” he said.
“Now that we’ve played a couple of games you can see that all the teams contending are capable of beating Germany in a one-off.
“Poland and Ireland are strong, and Scotland have shown that we are too.
“Ireland have got a lot of good players, but the most pleasing thing has been the way we have started the group.
“I think the performances have been excellent.
“We’re dominating games, and that’s something we’ve not done before.
“We’ve always had a great team spirit in any squad I’ve been involved in. The manager has got that with this squad by the looks of it.
“Everybody is working hard, there’s a style of play that’s effective and it’s enjoyable to watch as well.”
If that goal in Paris was the highlight of McFadden’s 48-cap Scotland career (which the former Everton and Motherwell man hopes isn’t yet over), not making it to the 2008 finals in Switzerland and Austria was the low-point.
But it isn’t Christian Panucci’s injury-time winner at Hampden in the last match that gives McFadden flashbacks.
It was a defeat to one of the group’s lesser lights which haunts him.
He recalled: “We went through a spell of beating Lithuania, the Ukraine and France twice, but then there was the disappointment of losing in Georgia before the home game against Italy.
“There were a lot of highs but that was the biggest low, because if we’d beaten Georgia we’d have qualified.
“That game is the one that I think back to.
“We didn’t play well and deserved to lose on the night against a team that wasn’t as good as us.
“If we’d won it we’d have qualified.”
He added: “It was the worst feeling (to not qualify).
“We beat France at home before the Paris match and the belief had started to grow.”
McFadden believes that a top-two place, or a play-off at worst, is “there for the taking” for Strachan’s men.
“The big thing for us in that group was we were strong at home,” he pointed out.
“That needs to be the case again.
“But the way we’ve started the campaign makes me think we can cope with anybody and cause them problems ourselves.
“I think this is a great chance to qualify.
“Before the group started you would have thought Germany would have run away with it. But that doesn’t look like happening.
“It’s there for the taking. You’ve got to believe.
“We’ve played our toughest game Germany away and we have to believe we can win the rest of them.
“We’ve got to aim for the top two places but even if we finished third we’d fancy our chances in the play-offs. Having an extra place to go for is a big difference.”