Megan Connolly has fond memories of facing Finland.
Last October her brilliant free-kick helped the Republic of Ireland to a crucial 2-1 World Cup qualifier win in Helsinki – a result that really kickstarted the campaign and pumped belief into a squad still hurting from their failure to make the Euros.
On Thursday night, the Finns arrive in Dublin looking for revenge. They realistically have to win to keep their hopes alive of making the World Cup play-offs, while three points for the home team will guarantee them second spot behind Sweden in Group A and ensure their World Cup dreams remain intact.
It will be a night for fire and ice – burning passion and cool heads, but Connolly warned against getting too wrapped up in the emotion of the occasion.
"It's a big game for us as a team, as a nation," said the Brighton midfielder.
"There's a lot of hype around it. If we win, we qualify for play-offs, but we don’t want to get caught up in that, we don’t want to get too caught up in the emotions.
"It's what you want to be a part of, isn’t it? It’s what we play for. It’s what we want to achieve as a nation.
"We are in an amazing position but a ball has not been kicked. Both teams are competing for the same goal. It will come down to football, not to history or what we've done in the past. It will come down to who shows up on the day. We will prepare as best we can and show up."
Tallaght Stadium has long been sold out for this one, with Ireland supporters desperate to see their side make a play-offs for the first time since the Euro 2009 meeting with Iceland.
Anticipation and expectation abound, which is where the experience of Vera Pauw becomes so critical, says Connolly.
"She has brought in such high standards. It is quite a consistent message every time we are in, and quite a consistent theme, quite detailed what we do in terms of the preparations on every team.
"As a team, everyone has bought into it. It's 50-50 as Vera and the staff can only do so much, everyone has upped their game, the standards on and off the pitch are so high so when you come in you want to match and that keep striving for more.
"We’re quite realistic about where we are and what we want to do. I think that’s something Vera does really well; she doesn’t go too far ahead or hype too much. She’s realistic about where we are as a team, what we want to achieve and what we have to do to achieve it.
"It does help us going into a game knowing what we have to do."
Connolly is understandably loath to talk about the play-offs, which are a potential minefield with the negotiation of as many as four games a possibility: "It is quite a complex qualifying campaign… but for us it's just all about Thursday.
"No ball has been kicked, we haven’t achieved anything yet so we can’t look that far ahead because it might never happen. We can’t look too far ahead and lose sight of what we’re trying to achieve on Thursday."
The Cork woman is also wary of a Finnish backlash. They sacked boss Anna Signeul in the wake of a disappointing Euros, with U17 manager Marko Saloranta appointed on a temporary basis to oversee the remainder of the qualification campaign.
They face Sweden in their last match while Ireland travel to Slovakia. The odds are against them and harmony in the camp is questionable, but Finland still possess enough quality to raid Dublin for three points.
"[The win in Helsinki] put us in this position for Thursday but there’s no doubting the quality of Finland," Connolly stressed.
"They were at the Euros, we weren’t. They qualified for it, they got there, they experienced that. You can look at it and say, 'Yeah, they didn’t win their games’ but they have that big tournament experience. We don’t have that yet.
"For us, we just need to do every single bit of homework and preparation for Thursday, and learn from the Finland game, what we can do better, and prepare as best as we can.
"I think everyone has stepped up individually over the last 18 months and as a team that benefits us so much. You have players who have stepped up a level. For me personally I am always looking to improve, year on year, game on game.
"You are playing for your country, that’s such a proud thing to do, so every time I step on the pitch I want to do better. I want to be my best.
"I think everyone would have expected [Finland to come second in the group]. They were higher ranked coming into this campaign, they were seeded higher, they’d qualified for the Euros. But that’s just football.
"On any given day any team can beat anyone. That’s important for us to believe when you go into these games against the higher seeded teams - like we did against Sweden, to have that belief that you can bring it to the higher teams. That’s something Vera has helped us with."
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