England head coach Sarina Wiegman says that her side’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 qualifier against The Republic of Ireland is not a ‘must-win’ game.
The Lionesses travel to Dublin to contest their second match of qualifying tomorrow night. England played out a 1-1 draw with Sweden at Wembley in their opening qualifier on Friday night.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, England boss Wiegman said that tomorrow night’s fixture is not ‘must-win’ despite the competitive nature of what is a very tricky group.
“I don’t really talk about must [win] but we really want to win this game and if we win, it puts us in a better position,” Wiegman said.
“This group is hard to predict where it goes, so you need to go out in every game and try to win, that’s what we are going to do tomorrow.
“We know that if the result is good, it puts us in a better position and if the result is not good, it puts us in a harder position. However, there are still four more opportunities to turn it around [after this game].”
England go into the match as strong favourites but Wiegman sees the dangers that The Republic of Ireland pose, especially on the counter-attack.
She said “They were promoted to this group. We never underestimate anyone, especially Ireland. They’ve had a 1-0 result against France that was really good.
“What we expect is a really physical team, they are very well-organised, can play the counter-attack and of course, they’ll try to take that opportunity. In moments, they will probably jump and press out, we have to be aware of that. It’ll definitely be hard to break down their defence.”
England’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 qualifier against The Republic of Ireland in Dublin kicks-off at 7.30pm tomorrow night.