Olivia Clark column: Euros preparation, Ladd and Nations League A

We are back on camp after our opening Nations League games and everyone is in good spirits.

The Sweden game was a great one to be involved with, we were disappointed not to win, but their ranking doesn’t lie and it was great to get a result against a top-tier nation.

I think we produced a good performance and that came off the back of the Italy game where we were disappointed to lose 1-0.

Certainly, we come into these games targeting six points. We don’t feel out of place in Nations League A.

Individually, we have players now who are playing in some of the biggest leagues in the world and I think that helps to give us belief as a squad that we can be competitive against anyone.

We have played a lot of top nations, like the USA and we’ve produced good performances but not got the results, but I think now the mindset change is that we believe we can compete with the best.

Rhian Wilkinson has helped with that but there is also a balance that we have perspective about what we’ve done in the past. We tend to always be better in the second game in the Nations League as well.

We are definitely becoming more comfortable with the ball. In one of our previous best draws, against England at St Mary’s Stadium, which was before my time, England had a lot of shots.

Now we are more comfortable and against Sweden I didn’t really have a clear cut chance to save. We aren’t just holding on for a point. We are competitive and we are trying to win games.