Megan Connolly loving the colour and passion of life in Serie A
There's a history of Irish female footballers plying their trade in Italy that goes back to the late 1970s, when Inchicore trailblazer Anne O'Brien won a Scudetto with Lazio.
O'Brien broke the mould. In a remarkable career she won further Italian titles with Trani, Reggiana and Milan Salvarani.
Louise Quinn (Fiorentina), Stephanie Roche (Fiorentina) and Niamh Farrelly (Parma) have all played in Serie A Femminile more recently, and now Megan Connolly is flying the flag, following in O'Brien's footsteps by representing the Biancocelesti.
Connolly has never been afraid to embrace a challenge.
Having broken through at College Corinthians in Cork before moving to Florida where she played college football, she's always shown an appetite to broaden her horizons. Moving to Italy was simply too good an opportunity to turn down.
"The league is great, the football is great."
"I've really enjoyed it," she said of her switch to Lazio, completed in the summer of 2024 after Bristol City had been relegated from the Women's Super League.
"At the start it was quite difficult, a big change moving from England after being six years there and then going to a new culture, a new everything. So yeah a shock at the start. But now I'm absolutely loving it.
"The league is great, the football is great. Lazio is fantastic, the training is great, the players, the staff. While I took quite a big risk to go there, I look back on it as such a great decision for me personally and for my career.
"You can turn any corner walking through the city and find a new landmark that you didn't even know."
It's a split season in Serie A. Ten teams play each other home and away during the first phase, with the top five going into the championship round and the bottom five consigned to the relegation round.
Lazio missed out on the championship round, and thus a shot at the title, but they comfortably topped the relegation phase ahead of Como (home of ex-Peamount United and Shelbourne midfielder Megan Smyth-Lynch), Sassuolo, Napoli and Sampdoria.
The standard is good - and when it comes to derby day, the atmosphere is intense.
"When we played at Roma with all their fans, you have grown men shouting at you," said Connolly, who recently penned a new two-year deal to stay in Rome.
"It was quite a shock. But a nice one. A good atmosphere. And yeah we played well in both games so that made the atmosphere really good and hopefully we can beat them twice next year.
"You have some fantastic players there, Italians and other international players who relocated last year.
"It is a growing league and would compete with WSL for sure. Obviously you have some of the best teams in Europe, Arsenal and Chelsea and City and stuff in the WSL, who it's hard to compete with. But there are some fantastic teams in Italy and yeah the level is top."
Connolly was injured for the double-header against Greece in April. She's itching to get back into Carla Ward's first XI as they enter the final window of this Nations League campaign.
A tricky test in Turkey awaits on Friday; then it's back to Páirc Uí Chaoimh for a rematch with Slovenia, who thumped the Girls in Green 4-0 in Koper. Ireland must win both games to have any hope of earning automatic promotion to League A.
"These are two really big games for us to try and get back into League A," Connolly added.
"We know that it has an effect on the World Cup qualifying campaign. So the focus for us is on Friday, get the result, and then go for it Tuesday and try to get another good result.
"We know it's going to be difficult. We've seen it throughout this campaign in this group. The games are difficult and in a lot of the games you have to be patient and kind of trust in our game plan, trust in the process, and then make sure that we're solid at the back. They will be tough games, but I think we'll have a good prep this week and go into Friday ready."
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