As the celebrations erupted in the chilly drizzle that had now engulfed Dublin's Aviva Stadium, Gemma Evans, for a brief moment at least, was trying to keep her head down.
A bruising encounter had taken its toll on the Liverpool centre-back, whose immediate focus once the final whistle finally brought the curtain down on a historic play-off win was to avoid the gaze of the cameras, each one poised and ready to pounce in a bid to mop up each and every second of the celebrations as Wales women confirmed their place at a major tournament for the first time.
"Sophie [Ingle] wanted to take a picture of me and I was like 'don't take a picture of me as I've fully lost my tooth'," she tells WalesOnline. Sign up to the Don't Take Me Home newsletter here.
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"It was at the front too. Then I realised there were cameras everywhere and that it had probably already been seen. So it just went everywhere then.
"You've just got to take it on the chin, haven't you?! It's pointless crying about it! We've qualified."
The resulting images of her battle-hardened smile underneath a trademark red, yellow and green bucket hat would, for many, go down as an iconic embodiment of the resilience and spirit that had underpinned this successful push for Euro 2025 qualification.
"It was my team-mate from Liverpool, Leanne Kiernan," she remembers. "I was going up for a header with her and she's just left an elbow, and it's just come out.
"All the girls were asking 'are you not angry that you've lost your tooth?' and I was just like 'do you know what, nothing matters to me right now apart from Wales qualifying'.
"I could have a broken leg and I would have still been over the moon because all I've ever dreamt of is getting Wales to a major tournament and to say we've finally done that is crazy.
"It adds to the story."
Evans' now legendary tooth, perhaps the most famous in Welsh football right now, is set to have a new home ahead of this summer's tournament, with the former Manchester United star recently donating it to the Welsh Football Museum in Wrexham, meaning its legacy is likely to last long after the final ball is kicked in Switzerland.
"It got safely transported home from Ireland," she added. "Everyone was texting me about it, saying 'have you found your tooth? Is it still at the Aviva?'
"It was still in my mouth. Dangling in my mouth. So I managed to keep it in my hand and give it to the physio. My parents then looked after it for me because it wouldn't have been sensible for me to keep it with the celebrations."
The emotions of that night may well have died down now, but several months on, Evans admits the prospect of stepping out at a European Championship still hasn't quite hit home.
"I don't think it's properly sunk in yet," she continues. "Obviously the celebrations after the game were amazing and then going over to my family was just an amazing feeling and it still feels a bit surreal to be honest.
"I don't think it'll feel real until we're actually there.
"I probably thought I'd be in floods of tears or whatever when we finally did it, but it was just raw pride at the time. I was just so proud of the graft the players had put in.
"The girls who'd been there for years. I felt like we'd done it for them as well. We obviously wanted to make the country proud and I feel like we did that.
"So it was just one of those where you just feel that the utmost pride for everyone involved. Staff and players. Players that have been through the process but weren't at the game with us. It's hard to put into words."
While she clearly feels there's more to come, this is undoubtedly the apex in Evans' career so far, although she isn't exactly a stranger to making history.
Indeed, her move to Merseyside made her the first footballer in 60 years to directly cross the Manchester United/Liverpool divide.
"Sometimes you've got to make a move because it's what you need," she said. "That was what I needed. I needed to find the love of football again, and be happy going there, and Liverpool's provided that for me. I love it.
"I enjoyed my time at Man United, but it's more than just enjoying being around your team-mates. Football is what you're there to do so I needed to make a selfish move and do what's best for me."
As it turns out, the move created a bit of a stir back home in the Rhondda, an area that's something of a stronghold for English football's two biggest clubs.
"Some of my brother's friends have been like 'You Scouse this and that. I can't believe you've left us', and all of that," she added.
"But in all seriousness, they're all so proud of what I've achieved and they support me in every aspect of my football career and outside of it as well.
"As much as they give me banter, which I love, they still respect me and still support me in everything I do."
The influence of her family has been instrumental in Evans' on-field success, which has been the culmination of a journey that began in the small village of Gelli, nestled in a part of the world many would consider a Welsh footballing hotbed.
Rob Page, Jayne Ludlow, Alan Curtis and Jimmy Murphy are just a few of the names to have emerged from these valleys, and have all made their respective mark on Welsh football.
Evans is clearly hoping she can do the same.
"We're blessed up there," she smiles. "There's a lot of football teams up there and when I was younger it was just about going to the park to play, chucking your hoodies down as posts. That's all I did when I was younger.
"It's not a city either, so there's perhaps more green spaces to play on. I think there's a mentality there about working for what you want. If you want it that bad then you go and chase it.
"Once you're from the valleys, it always has your heart. When you go there, everyone knows each other. There's a community that is very close. I would never say I'm not proud to come from the Rhondda Valleys. There's heritage there for me."
On the face of it, one might think it was always going to be football for the 28-year-old, but in another life, her sporting journey could have been very different.
"I played rugby and football, and I loved both," she said. "There was one stage I was going to choose rugby and then it was football.
"I got asked to play for Wales Sevens when I was in comprehensive school, but I'd already chosen football by then. I just didn't have the time [to do both].
"I did love rugby. I come from a rugby background. My dad played. My brother played. I used to go training with my brother because my dad was a coach.
"But football always had that bit more for me.
"I had a happiness within football. It was my happy place. Nothing else mattered when I was playing football. It was a safe place. I just felt free.
"Football kept me on the straight and narrow in some respects," she continues. "You can always go down the wrong path, wherever you're from.
"You can't go out partying and stuff like that when you have games to play.
"I always dreamed of being a professional. When I was younger, did I believe it? Probably not, if I'm honest. It was a dream I thought I'd never reach.
"I just wasn't sure if I'd ever get the opportunity. The Rhondda's a small place, and I just wondered how I'd ever get scouted from there. How I was going to reach the big teams. Whether I was good enough.
"But I've had that mentality installed into me that barriers are there to be broken."
Evans worked her way up through several local sides at youth level, starting out at Ton and Gelli at the age of just 10.
"It was quite a weird one to be honest as I'd never been to an academy really. I chose football as my main sport at 13, but there were no girls football teams at my age, so I had to play like two years above. My parents had to sign to say they consented to me playing.
"When I speak to girls in football, they've all come through academies since they were 11. I never had that opportunity."
Undeterred, Evans worked her way up through several youth sides, and was eventually picked up by Cardiff City in 2015, which was arguably the breakthrough moment in her career. Indeed, just one year later, she would win the first of her 67 international caps.
Spells at Yeovil, Bristol City and Reading all followed before the move to Man United in 2023,
And while her journey might not have been the most conventional one, she admits she's stronger for the experience.
"Do I wish I'd gone to an academy? Probably, if I could turn back time, yeah," Evans added.
"But right now, no. It's made me stick my heels in and work for it."
That hard work has already been central to her history-making exploits so far. But, like so many attached to this team, there's an overwhelming feeling that the journey isn't over yet.
The immediate attention is now on the UEFA Nations League campaign, which began with a spirited defeat 1-0 defeat to Italy on Friday.
But the prospect of mixing it with the best teams in Europe this summer is likely to loom large for the next few months.
"It's a chance for us to write our own chapter in history," she says. "We're not going there to make up the numbers at all.
"We're there to compete. We're there to make Wales proud and put on a performance."
