England Women’s manager, Sarina Wiegman felt that her team tamed a “dangerous” Iceland in their 2-0 victory.
Lucy Bronze headed in a 25th-minute opener before she set up Georgia Stanway’s 78th-minute volley to seal victory which kept England top of their 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifying group, after Spain could only manage a 3-1 away victory against Ukraine in Antalya, Turkey.
“An important win,” processed Wiegman who felt that her team nullified Iceland’s threats. “I think we played well. We know they’re very disciplined, very powerful and really dangerous on the counter.
“For the most part, we took that out so they didn’t become dangerous. They had that one chance where Hannah Hampton did really well.”
Wiegman now is planning for England’s crucial home match on 14 April against reigning World champions, Spain who beat the Lionesses in the 2023 final, but is keen to see a more polished end product moving forward.
“Overall, we showed some good football,” reflected Wiegman on the two displays in this international window, but felt that end product needs to be more polished.
“Of course, we want to score more goals but it starts with winning the game, and we created so many chances. If we’re so dominant, we’d like to score more goals.”
Wiegman however felt Ukraine and Iceland both went for disciplined defences to try and make life hard for England, but felt that the lessons that the squad learned from their victory against Ukraine were slowly coming through against Iceland.
“What you saw on Tuesday against Ukraine, and now Iceland, they’re just so disciplined in defence, it’s really hard to break through,” she explained.
“If I look at the development of the team, how do we do better in the final third? Even from Tuesday to today, I saw some things we added.”
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