England Women’s manager, Sarina Wiegman has revealed that she is “proud” of the team’s performance at 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
England finished runners-up to Spain at the tournament following a heartbreaking 1-0 defeat in the final, as Olga Carmona’s first half goal proved enough to deny the Lionesses a maiden Women’s World Cup title.
England’s manager, Wiegman spoke to Lionesses: Down Under co-host, Kyle Walker yesterday morning (21 August), where she stated that she was “proud” of the team but “very disappointed” to miss out on the title after a tricky campaign.
The loss also made Wiegman the first manager to lose two consecutive World Cup Finals, having lost to the USA in 2019 with the Netherlands.
Wiegman proceeded to reflect that the team has performed well despite missing three key players – Beth Mead, Fran Kirby and Leah Williamson, to injury, who were key members of their run to the UEFA Women’s Euros title last summer.
The team also almost lost Keira Walsh to a serious knee injury in their group win over Denmark but she missed only their 6-1 victory against China, before she returned in their scrappy win over Nigeria on penalties in the Round of 16.
Wiegman therefore felt that the team had overcame adversary to finish as runners-up as she explained: “Before the tournament we had a lot of challenges and then in the tournament we had challenges. The team adapted all the time and showed resilience.
“It’s such a pleasure to work with this group. There’s so much commitment and eagerness to improve and to grow and do better every single day.”
The ex Netherlands boss also praised Spain who she described as “really good,” with “fine margins” tipping the title in their favour.
Wiegman however felt that England could of made a comeback after Mary Earps saved Jennifer Hermoso’s penalty, as she added: “Although after the penalty, I thought this was our moment, and I was genuinely convinced we would score a goal and then the game would have been totally different.
“We had chances to score, especially in the beginning, but Spain’s possession game was very good so congratulations to them.”
England will now switch focus to the inaugural UEFA Women’s Nations League, where they will hope to reach the final, in order to secure qualification for next summer’s Olympics under the Team GB name.
Wiegman therefore iterated that the team has aspects of their game to develop across this new tournament with some players having a chance to further build their major tournament experience, as she said: “We’ve shown there is a lot of talent and we have shown there are also areas in which to grow.
“We had some injuries where players stepped up. Participating in a tournament for the first time is such a big thing to have in the bag to move forward and hopefully to the next tournament.”
Wiegman finally put England’s World Cup achievements into perspective as she explained that the team had faced “challenges” and “very hard games” against countries from every continent, who all brought “their own philosophy” to every match which challenged her team in different ways.
Leave a Reply