England made it two wins out of two at the 2023 Arnold Clark Cup with a 2-1 victory over Italy in Coventry on Sunday afternoon.
A much-changed Lionesses side battled to victory thanks to two goals from Rachel Daly who impressed in an attacking role.
When speaking to the media after the match, England boss Wiegman said that she was pleased to see her side record another win.
“I think we played a good first half, very energetic and good pressing,” she said. “In the second half, we started well and then had a period where we were struggling a little bit and we were a bit sloppy.
“At the end, we had to be a little bit tighter on the ball. You have to stay connected when you make lots of changes and Italy pressed higher, but I’m very pleased with the two goals and the win.”
Following a controversial equalising goal from Italy, all eyes were on the Lionesses to see whether they could find a winner in the final half-hour of the game. England aren’t used to conceding under Wiegman and the situation certainly provided the team with a learning curve. The Lionesses boss was generally pleased with her side’s reaction.
“I think it’s good learning because they equalised at the point we had lost control of the game a bit,” Wiegman said. “We had to stick with the plan and try to be better and then we scored a very good second goal. Of course, you don’t want to concede a goal, but it’s part of the game and we learned from it.”
For Wiegman, the 2023 Arnold Clark Cup has provided a great opportunity for her to give as many players as possible some minutes on the grass and to see how different player combinations work. She made a whole host of rotations to her side for the Italy game with Daly and Alessia Russo providing her with a particular selection headache in attack.
“Today we’ve seen many players on the pitch, different players that we saw on Thursday,” Wiegman said. “We want to see lots of players and different combinations of players.
“They’re both very good strikers (Daly and Russo). We also know how versatile Rachel is, so she can play in different positions and that’s a positive for us. This tournament is about seeing what options we have and trying them out which is what you saw on the pitch today.
“We’ve played some scenarios where we play two centre forwards, but for now, with how we play, we wouldn’t start with two because the way we’re playing right now, we’re doing really well.”
England complete their participation at the 2023 Arnold Clark Cup with a fixture against Belgium in Bristol on Wednesday evening.
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