England head coach Sarina Wiegman says that you can only become the best team in the world by winning the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The Lionesses won a first major title over the summer when they were victorious at the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 and all eyes are now focused firmly upon their participation at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023.
England’s preparations for their next major tournament appearance took another step forward last night when they defeated world champions, the United States, 2-1 at Wembley. When speaking in the post-match press conference, Wiegman said that the Lionesses will only be seen as the best in the world by winning the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“You are the best team in the world when you have won the World Cup and we didn’t,” Wiegman said. “I think we are in a very good place but it is so close, there are so many good countries and it is really tight.
“You don’t know ahead if you are going to win a game. We have done really well and we are in a very good place but we have to keep doing that and we have to keep working really hard executing our plans.
“The players have to be in a good place and you also have to be a little bit lucky when you go into a World Cup with everyone fit and available.
“It’s not about now, we have seen our team grow and that’s exciting to be a part of but we also take away some things that we can do better. We do our best to be the best that we can be and hopefully, that can bring us lots more success.”
Wiegman went on to say that England have been growing in self-belief ever since they started playing top tier opponents earlier this year.
She said “I think we have proved to ourselves that we can beat anyone, although that was also the case before I came in. With what I have experienced with this team, the belief came a little bit more with the Arnold Clark Cup win when we played Spain, Germany and Canada. In the EUROs, we also showed that we can beat anybody but again, it was very close, they were very competitive games and there was a very thin line between winning and losing.
“We could just bring out something where we could turn around games and win them against the best opponents and that’s what we shown again today. We have shown ourselves that we can do it and of course, that brings confidence.”
England continue their preparations for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 when they face the Czech Republic in Brighton on Tuesday evening.
About The Author
