Republic of Ireland Under-21 defender James Abankwah played his part as Udinese came from a goal down to beat Fiorentina 2-1 in Serie A on Monday.
The Waterford-born player was brought on at half-time for the north-eastern Italian club as they trailed their hosts following an eighth minute penalty converted by Italy forward Moise Kean.
Udinese ultimately turned the deficit on its head in the second '45 thanks to goals from Italy international Lorenzo Lucca and French World Cup winner Florian Thauvin. The result lifts Udinese to ninth while Fiorentina remain fifth.
Abankwah, who started his career at St Patrick's Athletic and won the FAI Cup in 2021, joined Udinese the following year and made two first-team appearances before being loaned out to Charlton Athletic last season.
But he has gradually enjoyed more game-time in Italy in 2024-25.
The substitute appearance against Fiorentina is the 20-year-old's fifth of the league campaign and third in succession after briefer cameos in games against Monza and Napoli earlier this month.
Abankwah was part of Jim Crawford's Ireland Under-21 squad during the recent European Championship qualifying campaign which culminated on Italian soil in October.
In the later game on Monday night, Inter Milan secured a 2-0 victory over lowly Como thanks to second-half goals from Carlos Augusto and Marcus Thuram to remain within touching distance of the Serie A summit.
The win lifted third-placed defending champions Inter to 37 points from 16 games. They are three points off leaders Atalanta and one behind second-placed Napoli, who have both played 17.
After dominating the first half, Inter finally took the lead with Augusto's towering header at the far post from a Hakan Calhanoglu corner three minutes after the break.
Thuram sealed the win two minutes into stoppage time with a powerful shot past Pepe Reina to reach 12 league goals, level with Atalanta's Mateo Retegui in the Serie A scoring chart.
