With one heavy loss and one solid win from their time in La Manga, Romania have proved they’re still a team on the up. Following on from their win against Slovakia, VAVEL and Sophie Lawson spoke to co-captain Florentina Olar-Spânu about the standard of Romanian football as well as her time with 3f Liga side Fortuna Hjørring.

The team on top for most of the game, Romania withstood a late barrage from Slovakia before Cristina Carp added to Olar’s first-half goal, a solid win and a good performance from Tricolorii, “It was a good game, good training game when you think about it we’re still in pre-season; and it’s always good to win.”

Rather different from the game against the Netherlands last week, Olar is pleased to be playing all calibre of teams as the team continue to improve: “From my point of view, we had a very good first-half against Holland, we scored and we were playing well until half-time. It’s not the same level as the one today but both are important if you want to develop and become better and better.”

Rising standards

Although the Romanian Superliga isn’t one of the bigger leagues in Europe the levels back home are on the up and have clearly been reflected in the national team who narrowly missed out on a spot at Euro 2017, “It’s not such a high level but it’s getting better and better and it reflects on the national team, we went to the play-offs and drew both games against Portugal – we were so close to participating in the Euros. Hopefully soon, we’ll be there.”

One of the few Romanian internationals to play outside of her home-country, Olar played for Apollon Limassol in the Cypriot league before moving to Fortuna Hjørring, “It’s a different style of play in Denmark to what I played in Cyprus. The championship is better and the training conditions are better, it’s all perfect to develop as a professional football player.”

She continued, “But it’s great, you have all the facilities you need and we’re like a family, you always feel welcome there.” Although the Constanța native did have one gripe about northern Denmark, “It’s nice to be in Denmark and play there, except the weather.”

Looking forward to City clash

With a UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter final tie looming, Olar can’t wait to take to get going, “I’m so excited, I’ve already been thinking about it. It’s my first time playing in the quarter final of the Champions League, we’ve worked hard to get there and I hope we can progress to the semi-final.”

Up against debutants Manchester City, Olar knows that Fortuna have a job ahead of them but it’s looking forward to the game no matter what the outcome, “It will be nice to go to England and play against Manchester City, we know England has a culture about football so it will be a very exciting game for us.”

With a spot in the semi-final against either Lyon or Wolfsburg on the line, Olar knows Fortuna will be up against some of the very best should they progress, “If we can do it it will be very tough but I’d be happy to play.”