Biggest games, honest conversations and learning Dutch - Olivia Clark column

Uefa Women's Euro play-off final, first leg: Wales v Republic of Ireland

Venue: Cardiff City Stadium Date: Friday, 29 November Kick-off: 19:15 GMT

Coverage: Live on BBC One Wales, iPlayer, BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru, the BBC Sport website and app, plus live text commentary

Highlights: S4C, 22:00 GMT and later on demand.

We know what the next two games mean. We know what the objective is and of course, we are all hugely excited about the prospect of trying to qualify for a first major finals.

We know that we will have to play better than we did at times in our semi-final win over Slovakia to get past tough opponents in the Republic of Ireland, but we feel we have taken an awful lot from the semi-final.

Perhaps if we had cruised through in the semi-final it wouldn't have been as helpful in terms of our preparation for the final.

The fight we showed, the quality we showed in the second game and our mentality as well... we didn't stop believing.

Slovakia were a good team - they were good at what they did and in the second game we nullified their threat, took care of the defensive side of the game and played in a very controlled way.

We feel like as a squad we are in a good place.

Mentally it was draining, a long 120 minutes, I told Rhian [Wilkinson, head coach] after the game that I felt like I needed a lie-down in a dark room!

I think that the manner of the victory over Slovakia has also helped to further build the relationship with Rhian.

I think the way we beat Slovakia, how hard it was, how badly we played in the first game, I think it's helped build the relationship between us as players and the manager.

Obviously Rhian has only had a short amount of time to get her ideas across, but after the first game we had a lot of honest conversations between players and between players and staff.

We had conversations we have probably not had before and come the second game, we were determined to get the job done. I don't want to sound arrogant, but there was a confidence we had. We felt we were going to do what we needed to do.

The first game gave us a wake-up call and I feel like those conversations with Rhian were excellent, she dealt with it really well.

Everyone respects her anyway, but I feel like the semi-final really strengthened that relationship between coach and players.

It'll be great to play in front of a record crowd. Hopefully we can smash the record and get towards 20,000 fans by Friday.

But it’s vital we play the game and not the occasion. It's got to be one game at a time at the minute for us. We can't approach it any other way.

We know we can't afford to have a spell against Ireland like we did in the first leg in Slovakia. We have to manage the moments in the matches and we do feel it's probably going to be quite tight.

For 10 days in this camp, we just have to be constantly on it.

We all know what it would mean to qualify. It's in the back of our minds, but that is where we have to keep it really.

We know Ireland are a good side, but we don't feel intimidated by that. We just have to concentrate on playing the best we can.

We have shown in the Nations League and we are showing for our clubs that we can perform well in big games.

I feel like I am in a better place now, personally, in terms of my preparation for a game like this.

It's hard when you aren't playing for your club, but I've been playing - and playing in the Champions League is a big stage - so hopefully it's good preparation.

Whatever the result of the first game, we will still feel we've got a chance heading to Dublin, but of course, we'd love a lead if we can manage it.

We want to play with an element of control in the first game and try to make Cardiff a difficult place for Ireland to come and play.

I feel more settled now in my first season with FC Twente and I’m learning Dutch. I've got a tutor. I feel like it will be helpful for me with integrating with the girls, but it’s difficult, I can't lie.

I am not very good with languages, I have so much admiration for multilingual people, my Cymraeg-speaking team-mates, the Dutch girls who can just switch to perfect English, I have so much respect for it.

I did German in school and I hoped Dutch would be similar, but it isn't.

But life with my club is good. I feel more settled now, my parents have been over to visit a few times as well.

It definitely gets easier living away. It is starting to feel a lot more like home.

Playing Real Madrid in the Champions League has been an amazing experience. Losing in Madrid in the way we did (7-0) wasn’t ideal, but the scoreline wasn't reflective of the game as a whole. We conceded five goals from set-pieces. That was tough to take.

We took a lot from the game and the second performance (3-2 to Madrid) was a lot more like us and a great game to be part of.

Cycling is a big part of life in the Netherlands, but I get scared sometimes! The cycle lanes are busier than the roads. It's also freezing at the moment and my hands get very cold, so I need to invest in some gloves.

Which admittedly, you don't expect to necessarily hear from a goalkeeper.