England head coach Sarina Wiegman says that she doesn’t view her side’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 qualifier against France in Saint-Étienne as a ‘must-win’ game.
The Lionesses are in third position in their group after three rounds of matches. England know that they must improve their results in their final three group matches if they are to end the qualification campaign in the top two positions and avoid a play-off.
While the pressure is on England to haul themselves back into the automatic qualification spots, head coach Wiegman insists that tomorrow night’s fixture against France is not a ‘must-win’ game for her side.
“No, [not must-win],” Wiegman insisted when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “We always want to win games and of course, it would really help put us in a better position if we win the game. That’s how we are going to approach it and after the experience of Friday, we feel comfortable that we can get a good result tomorrow.”
Opponents France can qualify for UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 with a win, however, Wiegman said that she is not thinking about the permutations and she remains calm about her own side’s hopes of reaching the finals.
She said “We don’t calculate. We approach every game to win and of course, we know that if we win, we are in a much better place.
“We absolutely want to win but if we don’t, we still have an opportunity to qualify for the EUROs. It’s not what we want because we are still going to try and top the group, that means that we need a win tomorrow.”
England lost the reverse fixture 2-1 at St James’ Park in Newcastle on Friday night. Both of the visitors’ goals came from set plays, a method which has served them well throughout head coach Hervé Renard’s tenure. Wiegman admits that The Lionesses must be better at defending set play deliveries this time around.
She said “We’ve reviewed the game and there were a couple of things that we did well but obviously, we didn’t do well enough. We have to do better tomorrow in every part of the game but especially set plays because we know that’s one of their strengths.”
England’s latest UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 qualifier against France takes place in Saint-Étienne at 8pm tomorrow night.
About The Author
