Wiegman wants England to keep control against China

England head coach Sarina Wiegman says that it is important that her side remain in control of the game against China.

The Lionesses face China in their final Group D game in Adelaide tomorrow. England simply need a favourable result to make sure of their place in the last-16 of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023.

England have played well in spells in their previous two group games against Haiti and Denmark and head coach Wiegman is now calling for a controlled performance against China.

“Of course, we have spoken about that,” Wiegman said when discussing areas for improvement in the pre-match press conference. “Again, tomorrow we expect a different game to the ones against Haiti and Denmark.

“I think we had moments in both games where we played really well and moments where we lost the ball a little bit to much and allowed the opponent to counter attack.

“We want to keep the patience, keep the ball moving and keep the passing game in a good place and then try to create chances to score goals which is what we always want to do. The main thing is to keep control of the game as much as possible because sometimes that’s really hard.”

Wiegman was in charge of a Netherlands side that faced China in the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. She went on to highlight the changes that China have gone through in the last two years.

She said “We have analysed China and they’re a different team than the one that played at the Olympics two years’ ago. It’s a different team with a different coach and they are well-organised. They can play a possession game but they can also play direct. We have earmarked a couple of players that could be dangerous.”

England’s final Group D match against China kicks-off at 12pm tomorrow afternoon.

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Daniel Pentland

I am the editor and owner of the WSL Full-Time brand which I launched in 2018.

I am an accredited journalist with the FWA, SJA and AIPS. I have reported from various levels of men’s and women’s elite football since 2016.

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