Wiegman Believes England Were “a little too open” in 4-3 Friendly Loss to Germany

Manager, Sarina Wiegman described England’s defence as “a little too open” in a 4-3 friendly loss to Germany at Wembley Stadium. 

Giulia Gwinn’s first-half brace; consisting of a penalty and strike in the space of seven minutes, plus Klara Buhl’s shot saw Germany 3-0 within the opening half-hour.

Georgia Stanway’s quick-fire brace however put the hosts back in the game at half-time, but Sara Dabritz’s second-half penalty secured victory for Germany despite Lucy Bronze’s effort for the Lionesses.

Speaking post-match, Wiegman felt that the Lionesses weren’t tight enough defensively, despite the high-quality action between two evenly-matched teams where unforced errors proved costly.

“I think it was a game at a very high level. It was two teams who are equal, who want to attack, so it was an open game. I thought it was a little too open for us.

“We wanted to press high and if you don’t get that right against Germany at moments, then they’re really dangerous when they move forward. I also think we had moments where we lost the ball through unforced errors so we definitely want to do that better.

“They had a lot of players in front of the ball and that makes them really dangerous when they come close to goal but we also had opportunities to go forward.”

With the high-press style having not worked successfully against Germany, Wiegman refused to rule out deploying the same tactics in future in order to allow her team to learn how to better execute the game plan.

“We want to press higher but we need to find out the triggers, when do we wait and when do we go.”

Wiegman proceeded to explain that the defeat is now a new foundation from which the team can build upon heading into their UEFA Women’s Euro title defence, which takes place in Switzerland from 2 – 27 July 2025.

“That’s why we play those games. If we don’t get things right, we get exploited and that’s what we want.

“We want to see where we are now, we want to get as much information as possible, get players playing minutes to show connections and where they are and that’s what we really need moving forward in preparation for the EUROs.”