England head coach Sarina Wiegman is looking forward to seeing how her side react to a changeable Italian team in their second match of the 2023 Arnold Clark Cup on Sunday afternoon.
The Lionesses face the Italians at The Coventry Building Society Arena. A near-capacity crowd is expected at the Warwickshire venue.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, England boss Wiegman said that Italy are a team that offers differing shapes and tactics and she is looking forward to seeing how her side are able to adapt to the test.
“They’re a very good team,” Wiegman said. “They will be a little bit disappointed with recent results but I think they have played some good opponents.
“Tactically, they will do different things in the game which will challenge us; sometimes they have a little higher press and other times, they drop a little deeper. When they are in possession, they do different things so that is really good for us to have to adapt and track what they do continuously as a team. We have to be proactive in that so that we can control the game.”
The majority of the Italian squad is made up of players from the top two clubs in the Serie A Femminile TIM. Wiegman knows that her side’s opponents have plenty of experience in their ranks.
She said “They have good players and are pretty experienced. We know (Cristiana) Girelli of course, the midfield are pretty good and (Lisa) Boattin is an attacking player.
“Of course, we analyse the team but then we bring it back to what we have to do and how we want to play, being aware of their strengths and trying to exploit some of their possible weaknesses.
England’s 2023 Arnold Clark Cup fixture against Italy at The Coventry Building Society Arena kicks-off at 3.15pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here.