England Women’s manager, Sarina Wiegman believes that her Lionesses have to be “focussing” on Ukraine, with no “control” over automatic qualification for 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
A 4-0 defeat to Spain in Mallorca on Friday evening saw England concede top spot and the sole automatic qualification spot to their rivals, despite both teams sitting on 12 points going into the final pair of qualifiers.
England however can still snatch automatic qualification if they beat Ukraine and Spain fail to win away to Iceland in Reykjavik tomorrow (9 June).
“What we control is our game,” explained Wiegman at her pre-match press conference as she iterated that an early goal would be ideal psychologically. “It would be really nice for us to get an early goal, but we want to play well, we want to be on the ball a lot.”
Wiegman however is refusing to underestimate Ukraine who she felt has improved since they lost 6-1 to England in their opening qualifier, despite not having claimed any points in the group across the five games so far,
“Ukraine, although they haven’t got a point in this campaign yet, they are improving. They had a tight one last Tuesday too. So we want to do better, we want to be on the ball, we want to be dominant on the ball, we want to create chances, score goals and not concede any. That’s what we’re going after tomorrow.
“Yes, it helps a lot if we score early in the game and then we’ll wait for what happens on the other side in Reykjavik, but what we can control, that’s what we’re focusing on.”
A member of Wiegman’s coaching staff will be tasked with monitoring Spain’s trip to Iceland whilst the Lionesses are in action at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium for the first time.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” quipped Wiegman as the Lionesses prepare for to play at a 22nd different English stadium under her reign. “Going around the country is really nice, but then playing in this new stadium in Liverpool, which is a big city, a football city, I feel excited. I’m grateful that we can play here.
“We play in many very exciting stadiums. I think England has many exciting stadiums and areas to play in and we go around a little bit and I’m really enjoying that.”
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