England head coach Sarina Wiegman is expecting her side to bring energy and togetherness when they face Ukraine at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool on Tuesday night.
The Lionesses complete their initial FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027 qualifying campaign with a fixture against the lowest-ranked side in their group.
England were defeated 4-0 by Spain on Matchday 5, a result which dented their automatic qualification hopes. When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Wiegman said that her side have stuck together and they are ready to perform.
“It was a difficult Friday night,” Wiegman said. “It felt hard and it hurt but we’ve moved on because we have another game tomorrow.
“We reviewed [the game], we’ve trained again and we are getting ready for tomorrow. There’s good energy in the team, they’ve stuck together and we really want to show that again tomorrow.”
England need to win and hope that Spain slip up against Iceland if the Lionesses are to qualify from their group. While her side need a favour, Wiegman says that England’s eyes are only focusing on Ukraine.
She said “What we control is our game. It’d be really nice to get an early goal [and put pressure on Spain] but we want to play well and be on the ball a lot.
“Ukraine haven’t got a point in this campaign yet but they are improving their game. They had a tight one last Friday.
“We want to be better, we want to be on the ball, we want to be dominant on the ball, create chances, score goals and not concede any. That’s what we are going after tomorrow and yes, it helps if we score early in the game and then we will wait to see what happens in Reykjavik. We are focusing on what we can control.”
England will play at the Hill Dickinson Stadium for the very first time and Wiegman admits that she likes seeing the Lionesses tour stadiums around the country.
She said “I’m really looking forward to it. To go around the country is really nice and it’s nice to play in this new stadium in Liverpool which is a football city. I feel excited and I’m grateful that we can play here.
“We play in many exciting stadiums, England has many exciting stadiums and areas to play in. We go around a bit and I’m really enjoying that.”
England’s FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027 qualifier against Ukraine kicks-off at 8pm on Tuesday evening.
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