Michael O'Neill is convinced Northern Ireland will not suffer stage fright as they bid to reach a first major tournament in 30 years.
O'Neill's side were ranked among the fifth seeds for Euro 2016 but go into Monday's match against Hungary top of Group F and three points away from booking their trip to France.
They have never been to a European Championship before and last appeared at the World Cup in 1986, but expectations reached fever pitch after a 3-1 success in the Faroe Islands on Friday.
And O'Neill is confident his squad are ready to stand tall and get the job done at Windsor Park.
"Obviously we're confident, we've played seven games, won five and drawn one. We've got all the characteristics to see this game through and see this campaign through," said O'Neill.
"It's nice to go into the game top of the group, that's a nice positon to be in.
"I don't think there's a nervousness in the players, there's an excitement...a really strong belief.
"They know what they're good at as a team and they execute it, so expect to see a level of performance similar to what we've had in the campaign.
"Their focus has been tremendous. As soon as they came off the pitch on Friday their minds turned to this game.
"Our objective is to finish the job but if we don't do that here we'll have other opportunities; our destiny remains very much in our hands."
O'Neill expects to have a full squad to pick from, having avoided any new niggles in the Faroes, while Chris Brunt and Kyle Lafferty managed to avoid picking up their second yellow cards of the campaign.
There had been an outside chance of Nottingham Forest's Jamie Ward linking up with the squad in Belfast but his hamstring injury means he has not recovered sufficiently.
It would be fitting if Northern Ireland sealed qualification against Hungary, having kicked off their impressive sequence of results with a 2-1 win in Budapest last September.
"We've already beaten Hungary once and that was the start of it for us, but we recognise it's possibly a different Hungarian team we're facing this time," he said.
"They have a new coach, their third in this campaign, and we expect a very tough game.
"Looking at recent results they've kept five clean sheets in the last five games - they're not scoring a lot of goals but still managing to win games 1-0.
"The four-point gap we have over Hungary is a nice position to be in, but we would anticipate Hungary coming with a firm intention to close that gap."
Captain Steven Davis, who is looking to follow in the footsteps of Sammy McIlroy and Martin O'Neill in leading his country to a major summer tournament, shares his manager's conviction.
"The players have been looking forward to this game since the final whistle went in the Faroes," said the Southampton midfielder.
"It's all about embracing the situation. It's hard not to be excited, there's a great prize on offer for us at the end of this game.
"The Hungarians are going to be confident they can win the game as well so I'd expect chances for both sides and hopefully we can keep our nerve."
Source: PA
