‘It hurts. I expected a different game’: Wiegman’s shock at Spain humbling
Sarina Wiegman said she wants to see a reaction from her Lionesses after England suffered their heaviest defeat in 17 years against Spain
Sarina Wiegman said she wants to see a reaction from her Lionesses after England suffered their heaviest defeat in 17 years against Spain.
It was a humbling evening for Wiegman and her team, who needed a win or a draw to qualify for the World Cup. Even a defeat by a single goal would have kept the chance of topping their qualifying group alive.
Should Spain beat Iceland and England also win against Ukraine on Tuesday night, to leave the teams level on points, Spain would secure automatic qualification and the Lionesses would face the playoffs because the world champions have the better head-to-head record.
“Of course it hurts,” said the England manager, following the 4-0 defeat in Mallorca. ”I expected a totally different game. I expected a very tight game, a very competitive game, but it was different tonight, so that’s of course really disappointing and that hurts.”
Wiegman said her side started well against Spain, but were undone by the first goal that took a heavy deflection and then they “couldn’t get to another gear and keep the ball and go forward and create chances” as their opponents dominated and the game ran away from them.
“[The deflection] was unlucky, but after that we didn’t get momentum any more,” she said. “We were really struggling to keep the ball and find the passes further away or in behind. They played really well and we didn’t play so well. Out of possession, we were really struggling to stay compact, especially in our own half … our connections weren’t so good and they found the space we left straight away.”
The next step is to work out “what caused this”, the manager added. “We had to deal with a very good opponent, but I think we’re a good team too. If you bring it back to what our gameplan was, did we execute that really well? I don’t think so.”
On whether it was unfair that England could win every game in their group bar one, against the world champions, and be forced into playoffs as a result, Wiegman said: “It feels like the European competition is really competitive, and that has been the case since the Nations League was set up.”
The manager added that focusing on Ukraine on Tuesday is what matters before they start thinking about a likely playoff. “Spain has to go to Iceland, too and we have seen how hard that team is,” she said.