Sarina Wiegman has implored England to “improve” ahead of a crucial UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 qualifier away to Sweden.
England head to Gothenburg knowing that anything other than defeat would see them automatically qualify for next summer’s tournament, where they will seek to defend their title in Switzerland.
Improvement though is Wiegman’s main ambition for the team in Gothenburg tomorrow (16 July), after Alessia Russo’s goal was cancelled out by Fridolina Rolfo in a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture in April at Wembley Stadium, London.
“I think we definitely want to do better than we did at Wembley, we could have executed better than we did and we’ve been working on that and I hope we will improve.”
Wiegman however warned that Sweden are “very structured” who can’t be underestimated with their “direct” play.
“Powerful with lots of experience. They can play direct and get behind the defence so we have to be aware of that. We are aware of that and we have prepared. They have to win but that’s what we aim to do too.”
Hannah Hampton played in goal in England’s home win over Republic of Ireland but faces competition to retain her spot, as Mary Earps seeks a return to the starting line-up whilst Khiara Keating, Anna Moorhouse and Lucy Thomas look to start.
Wiegman consequently is relishing the “competitiveness” in goal and revealed that she has a tough decision to make as to who starts in goal.
“There’s a lot of competitiveness going on in the goalkeeping group but also in the team.
“There’s a decision to be made for tomorrow and then we don’t see each other for three months so players will play for their clubs and we will see.”
Knowing that a draw would be enough for qualification, Wiegman iterated that she won’t set her team up to try and settle for a draw.
“We never play a match to draw, we play the match to win. And if we win the game we might even win the group too. We’re approaching the game to win and we’ll see what happens.”
Wiegman also addressed the squad’s evolution as she explained that she knows “what direction we want to go in.”
The Dutch boss added that patience is important as she continued: “When things go really well we try to stay neutral because we know what we are doing and why we are doing it.
“And then when things don’t go that well we also stay neutral and keep working on the things it’s good to work on to improve.”
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