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Sarina Wiegman says that she has enjoyed England’s latest camp despite the challenges brought by player unavailability.
The Lionesses were without four players due to injury while one retired ahead of the latest international window.
England were beaten 2-1 by Brazil in Manchester on Saturday before defeating Australia 3-0 in Derby last night. When speaking to the media after that victory, head coach Wiegman said that she was happy with her team’s response to their loss at the weekend.
“I’m happy with the result, 3-0 nil is a very good score,” Wiegman said. “I think we started really well, dominated the game. They didn’t really change [after the sending-off], but they were down to 10 which does change a couple of things. We wanted to keep the pace of the game and I think we created a lot of very good moments in the final third. We [still] have the ability to improve that.”
Aggie Beever-Jones, Lucy Bronze and Georgia Stanway got the goals as England got the better of a strong Australia side who lost defender Alanna Kennedy to a red card after 18 minutes. Bronze not only scored England’s second goal, it was also her 34th birthday. Wiegman was full of praise for the right-back, who played the whole of the EUROs with a fractured tibia.
She said “Of course, she wants to go forward, we want her to go forward and she always brings an energy to the team, she is ready to go. She did get a couple of opportunities and then came inside and scored the goal, so that was really nice. She understands the game really well, she really gets connected with the players and she helps everyone tactically to do the right thing.”
This month’s camp was the first part of a double-header in England’s ‘Homecoming Series’ and Wiegman is pleased with what she has witnessed from her group.
She said “I’ve really enjoyed this camp. I think the team came in in a very good place. Everyone was very excited to come back and start a new cycle, but at the same time, celebrate the homecoming and get connected with the fans. It’s really nice to see some of those celebrations, but at the same time, we’re getting ready for World Cup qualifiers and want to use these games in the best possible way.
“We had to adapt because even when we had some injuries before camp, we had some extra injuries then other players get opportunities, which is really good for those players. For us, we can see so many things and try out different things.”
One negative from the victory over Australia was a possible knee injury sustained by youngster Michelle Agyemang and Wiegman admits that it doesn’t look good.
She said “It was an awful moment. It doesn’t look good, of course, we don’t know [how bad] just yet. I’m not positive from what I’ve seen.”
England return to action in the November international window with fixtures against China and Ghana.
