OIivia Clark column: Big games, big mountains and my famous cousin

Uefa Women's Euro qualifier: Croatia v Wales

Venue: Branko Cavlovic-Cavlek, Karlovac Date: Friday, 12 July Kick-off: 19:15 BST

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 from from 22:00 BST and later on demand.

In her BBC Sport column, Bristol City goalkeeper Olivia Clark looks forward to Wales' Euro 2025 qualifying games in Croatia on Friday, 12 July and Kosovo in Llanelli on Tuesday, 16 July

We definitely want to put things right in this camp as we look to finish top of our qualification group knowing our fate is still in our own hands if we get wins against Croatia and Kosovo.

We are all focused on the job at hand, but that doesn't mean we are not disappointed to have dropped four points to Ukraine in the last qualifiers as we only managed two draws.

We didn’t really know what to expect from Ukraine. Their ranking is not far below us, they lost to Croatia which they will be disappointed by, but they gave us two hard games.

We wanted to take lessons from the first game, but Ukraine executed their game plan brilliantly.

It wasn’t a disaster by any means but we know that the result means we are now needing to win our final two qualifiers to put ourselves in a good spot and to win the group.

The last draw, especially, felt like a loss, but when we look at it analytically, we aren’t in a bad position at all.

As a goalkeeper it can be hard when you see the game in front of you and it is not unfolding like you would have wanted. It can be hard, you can’t control anything, but ultimately we have to just give credit to Ukraine I think.

As much as it was frustrating, we haven’t spoken too much about it. Our manager Rhian Wilkinson has said it was not the camp we wanted but it was the camp we needed, and I think everyone is on board with that message.

In Nations League Group A, we spent a whole year really playing higher-ranked sides and being like Ukraine - sitting deep and playing for a draw. So we’ve had to readjust and I think this has been a completely different challenge.

We know we have to put things right now and it will be a tough start against Croatia. We know it is going to be extremely hot and I don’t think the pitch will be too great.

Croatia are not a bad team at all - they beat Ukraine - so we know we need to be better and the heat won’t help us.

Hiking and climbing to wind-down

Having mentioned in my last column that it had been a long season and that I was looking forward to some downtime, I may have misjudged some of my post-season activities.

I went to Majorca for a week of chilling out but since then I have been hiking!

I went to the Lake District and we did some lovely walks there and then went to Loch Lomond and climbed Ben Nevis, so I didn't really have an off-season!

Ben Nevis was much harder than I expected. I thought I'd be OK climbing it as I have been up Pen-y-Fan before, but it turns out Ben Nevis is a lot harder.

I did love it though. I haven't done loads of hiking, but I really enjoy it and would like to do more.

I love being outdoors. I think a lot of younger people have really got into hiking - I see it a lot on TikTok. I think a lot of people prefer to do stuff like that rather than going out drinking.

All the hiking has meant my golf has suffered a little bit. I am getting better, but the progress is slow, especially with my socials.

I've been a bit slow with my golf social media but I think I have a rival on TikTok now with my Wales team-mate Lois Joel.

Hopefully she and I can have a game on camp some time soon.

My famous cousin... Henry Thomas

Something a lot of people don't know about me and are surprised to learn is that I have a cousin who is an international rugby player for Wales, Henry Thomas.

Henry is my mum's brother's son. Henry's dad is Welsh - all of that side of my family are Welsh.

Henry grew up in Bath but he made his Wales debut last year, ironically against England.

He's come back into the Wales squad now as he's signed for Scarlets after a spell playing in France for Castres and Montpellier.

It's great for me having another professional sportsperson in the family and he has always been very supportive of my career.

Obviously I don't get to see him play a lot - it's an occupational hazard, and also because he's been playing in France - but hopefully I can catch some more games now he's playing in Wales.

Sometimes we are both on camp at the same time and it is always great to see him.

No-one else in my close family is that sporty. Henry's dad played rugby and Henry and I both played cricket to quite a high level, so it's great to be able to talk to him about it.