Caitlin Hayes believes the Republic of Ireland will prove they belong among the best teams in Europe after they sealed promotion to League A of the UEFA Nations League.
The Girls in Green slogged through awful conditions in Albania on Tuesday to snatch a 1-0 win thanks to Denise O'Sullivan's 88th-minute effort.
Those three points left them with an unassailable lead in Group 1 of League B with two matches to spare.
Ireland have now been elevated to the top tier as one of the continent's 16 best-ranked sides, while their seeding for the Euro 2025 qualifiers - which begins in April - is also boosted.
These are heady times for an ambitious squad, with Celtic defender Hayes confident they're capable of raising the bar even higher.
"It’s where this team deserves to be," she said. "We deserve to be in that [League] A, we’ve worked hard for it and I can’t think of a better place for Ireland to be than in [League] A and to compete with the best.
"We are the best and we’ll prove that on the stages we’re lucky enough to play on when those [group] draws happen."
Hayes declared for Ireland in September and went straight into the starting XI for the clash with Northern Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.
The 28-year-old - eligible to represent the country through her Offaly-born grandfather - has been an excellent addition to interim boss Eileen Gleeson's panel; an elegant, tough centre-half who has filled the void left by the injured Aoife Mannion.
"I was declaring for a long time that I was Irish and I was very adamant that it was one day going to be a part of my future," she added.
"I know I don't have the accent but I have the heart for this shirt, I have the heart of the nation and playing at Celtic it’s only something that grows.
"Sometimes I have to pinch myself to see if it's real... I have to pinch myself and look down at the badge sometimes and think that I’ve finally done it. It’s a huge honour and like I said, long may it continue."
Ireland will wrap up their Nations League campaign with games against Hungary and the North in December. They will hope conditions are considerably better than the incessant rain that almost led to the Albania game being abandoned.
Pools of water gathered on the pitch during the first half as a fierce thunderstorm led to a downpour that turned the match into a farce. After a 90-minute delay, ground staff managed to sweep most of the surface water from the field and Ireland returned to dig out the victory. But it was a serious slog.
"It wasn't even the conditions," Hayes reflected. "Obviously they were terrible conditions for the game, but in terms of the stop, start, be steady on your toes, go shower, game's not on, game's on... it was just more so the circumstances in which the conditions arose, I guess.
"It was nothing like I've ever experienced before, but credit to the team, they kept full focus and we came away with the three points, which was the most important thing."
"When you've got Katie McCabe, who is a Ballon d'Or [nominee] and gets tackled by a puddle, it's pretty bad. I'm just grateful for the game to be over, grateful for the three points and grateful to be moving on with this team unbeaten in the Nations League."
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