England Women manager, Sarina Wiegman sees “potential” in her squad after 7-0 friendly victory over Jamaica.
Ella Toone’s brace plus Lucy Bronze’s header put England in firm control at half-time, before Georgia Stanway, Alessia Russo, Aggie Beever-Jones and Beth Mead scored in the second half of their warm-up friendly victory over Jamaica before they head to UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 in Switzerland.
The dominant display left Wiegman feeling “excited” about the squad’s potential despite finding themselves in a difficult group with France, Netherlands and Wales at the Euros, where the Lionesses are seeking to defend their title.
“I am most of all excited – I’m excited about the team,” explained Wiegman. “We’ve had two weeks of training now and it was really good.
“We really got together, you can feel the fight in the team, that we want to go to the Euros now and go out there and play. And I’m not really busy with the third win, let’s first get through it game by game.
“We all know what we want, and we also know what our opponents want. So, we’ll bring it back and get ready for France.”
Wiegman has previously won the tournament twice as a manager, having achieved the feat first with Netherlands in 2017 then England in 2022, albeit on home turfs on both occasions but she is aware of how tough the competition will be given her experience.
“I’ve been involved in many tournaments now,” noted Wiegman “Things develop in the tournament. You have to be prepared. You have to adapt to what you have in front of you and see what happens and make big decisions. I think there is huge potential in this squad and we have many options.”
Lauren James returned to the matchday squad after two months out with a hamstring injury which pleased Wiegman who feels that the squad have found momentum, aside from their Women’s Nations League losses away to Belgium and Spain.
“The team is really strong,” reflected the Dutchman on the confidence going into the tournament. “I think the players are in good form. They’re ready to play, they’re ready to start, ready to come on, and that was really good to see.”
Wiegman also addressed the versatile depth in the fullback and number ten positions as she explained that she will adapt based on what tactics are required to beat the opposition.
“We have many players that can play in the ten position. Jess Park has played there, Grace Clinton can play there, Ella Toone plays there, and now LJ is coming back, she could play up front, but you can also play in the ten role.
“Right and left-back, we can figure out. Lucy plays on the right side the most and on the left side, we’ve changed it a couple of times.
“It all depends on what we need. You try to find balance in your team, and at the same time, you have your gameplan which you want to get right, and we have options there.”
Turning her attention back to the friendly win over Jamaica, Wiegman described the display as “a good performance,” having anticipated a dominant display but feels that there is room for improvement.
“We expected that we would be in the final third a lot, so we wanted to show what we could go there. Of course, we scored seven goals. That’s really nice. And still, we thought we could do a little bit better at some moments, get a little more composure and make an extra pause.
“But overall, I’m really happy with the performance. We know that Jamaica didn’t have all their best players, so they were struggling a little bit. But still, you have to do it yourself.”
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