With the ASEAN Club Championship returning for the first time following a 20-year hiatus, the past nine months have led to this moment.
On Wednesday, either Buriram United or Công An Hà Nội will be crowned champions of Southeast Asia for the first time.
The tie remains firmly in the balance after both teams played out a 2-2 draw in last week's first leg, meaning there is still everything to play for Chang Arena.
And if last week's encounter in Hanoi is anything to go by, Wednesday should deliver another thriller.
Twice, CAHN -- buoyed by a partisan 13,897 crowd at Hàng Đẫy Stadium -- took the lead as they showed plenty of intent in making the most of holding home advantage in the first leg.
On both occasions, Buriram were able to respond -- displaying plenty of resilience to pair with their undoubted quality.
Nonetheless, while it is now their turn to enjoy home advantage, Buriram's cause has not been helped by a hectic end to the campaign even if they had already secured a fourth consecutive Thai League 1 title.
*Catch all the ASEAN Club Championship final live on the ASEAN United FC YouTube channel here!
As they bid to claim a remarkable quadruple, Buriram spent the weekend booking their place in the Thai League Cup final with an emphatic 7-0 victory over Nongbua Pitchaya.
They will now face Lamphun Warriors in the decider on May 31, a week after taking on Muangthong United in the Thai FA Cup final.
"We didn't have too much time to work specifically for this game," said Buriram coach Osmar Loss.
"Everybody knows we have a tight schedule.
"We played two days ago in the semi-final of the Thai League Cup but I think we have experienced players in this squad and the information we talked about, more than what we have done in training on the pitch, was important.
"The difference is that we understood how aggressive Công An Hà Nội were in the first half [of the first leg], how aggressively they pressed us and the space that we could use in that moment.
"In the second half we started to use this space, so if tomorrow they use the same strategy we will be ready to handle this aggression."
Meanwhile, while they were ultimately unable to come away with the win a week ago, CAHN coach Alexandré Pölking is confident his usual gameplan can be relied on -- as he revealed he had no selection issues heading into the second leg.
"We have the same squad as the last time, the same players from that game," said Pölking.
"We brought everyone today. It's a special day tomorrow, there's nobody injured, nobody banned, so it's the same as last week.
"I don't think we will change the approach too much. We liked the way the game was going. We didn't get the result, which means we still need the result and we're going to go the same way.