England Women’s manager, Sarina Wiegman has praised her squad for their unity in a tough Group D.
Wiegman’s Lionesses need to beat Wales tomorrow (13 July) to secure a Quarter-Final spot regardless of the result in Netherlands’ clash against France, having lost their group opener against the French before battering the Dutch 4-0 in their second game.
Wiegman however has been encouraged by her squad’s united response to the results with conversations on and off the pitch about their development.
“I think the players are really together and they’re taking responsibility but also having conversations on and off the pitch and I think that looks really good. Of course, then you have to perform again and that’s showing that in good results and that’s what we’re going to try and do tomorrow.”
Wales though have an outside chance at securing a knockout spot themselves but only if they win by four or more goals and Netherlands lose to France, but Wiegman is keen for England to dominate their British rivals despite knowing how spirited and united Wales will be.
“I hope we will see a game where we have a lot of the ball and we play very good in possession, so we don’t let it become into a fighting game. I think Wales are a team that are very compact. They can fight and they’re really together but also, when they have the ball, they can play direct.
“We’re just trying to prevent that and the best way to do that is to be good on the ball yourself, move the ball very quickly and try to exploit spaces.”
With various permutations in the balance coming into this game, Wiegman vowed that the team will fight for their place in the last eight.
“We know also what’s on the line. We’re going to do everything to win the game because we want to get through. There’s always pressure on England but we expect from ourselves that we’re going to play a good game and we are tight on the ball and we let the ball move and hopefully we have the ball a lot.”
Having made just one change to the starting line-up from the France to Netherlands games, Wiegman refused to get drawn on any potential line-up tweaks.
“Things develop during the tournament and things have developed even from France to the Netherlands. What we also do is look forward to the next game like we do now with Wales and what do we need and what do we think is best in this moment to start the best team to play against Wales.”
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