Denise O'Sullivan has her eyes on some big days at the Aviva Stadium in the spring after the Republic of Ireland sealed promotion to League A of the UEFA Nations League.
O'Sullivan swept home an 88th-minute effort against Albania in dreadful conditions to earn the Girls in Green three points that ensured they won their group with two games to spare.
They are now elevated to the top tier of the Nations League and have an improved seeding for the Euro 2025 qualifiers, which start in April.
Ireland played a historic fixture against Northern Ireland at the Aviva in September.
Now, they're hoping for more days out at the Lansdowne Road venue.
"You always want to be playing in front of big crowds but there will be games like that when you're playing in front of a few hundred," O'Sullivan said when reflecting on the sparse attendance at the Stadiumi Loro Borici in Shkoder on Tuesday evening.
"As professionals, you must cope with that and we dealt with it well.
"Hopefully we’ll play in the Aviva again next year, in front of a massive crowd, but right now Tallaght is our home. Hopefully people keep showing up to get behind us because the support is massive and really helps push us along."
The biblical rain made the going very tough, even for someone as technically gifted as O'Sullivan.
The opening period was chaotic, and dangerous, as the ball continuously got stuck in the soaked turf.
"It was crazy," O'Sulllivan said. "I'd never experienced anything like it. It was literally a monsoon, you couldn’t do anything like trap the ball. I was kicking puddles.
"Once that torrential rain came, it was kind of unplayable. We knew we might have to come back out again, so we went in and we stayed focused, and we came out and we went until the very end.
"I'm glad we're coming away with the three points. We were just playing in a monsoon in puddles. I think we just had to get through it at that point, it was just a mentality.
"With a lot of resilience, we got to half-time and it cleared up."
"It was really difficult"
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) October 31, 2023
Ireland's match-winner Denise O'Sullivan speaks to @DAVEKELLY4 about the unenviable first-half conditions as #COYGIG edged past Albania to make it four Nations League wins from four #IRLWNT #ALBIRL pic.twitter.com/xgyU1pi81b
League A of the Nations League consists of the top 16 teams in Europe. Ireland could be pitted against world champions Spain, England or France when the next tournament comes around, but there's no sense of trepidation among the players. It's the sort of challenge they want.
"It's massive," O'Sullivan reiterated. "It gives us confidence but we've big games coming up after a quick turnaround. As happy as we are with promotion, we won’t be going easy and we’ll want the six points in that camp too [against Hungary and Northern Ireland]."
In a game where Ireland struggled to hit anything close to top gear, O'Sullivan's touch and intelligence bailed them out. For her goal she cracked open the Albanians with a brilliant touch to free Kyra Carusa before finsihing the move and sparking relieved celebrations.
"We had a few chances before the goal, including some myself, so I had a feeling the goal was coming," the Cork midfielder said.
"We need to keep putting the pressure on them and we did that. Finally there was some good link-up play with Kyra and I put it away.
"It was a tough night. The second half was much better because at half-time we were told to put the ball in the box and the opportunities would come.
"The mentality going in [at half-time] was that we were coming back to play. That was always in the back of our minds.
"Three points is three points. It wasn’t the best of starts but we put it right in the second half."
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