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England head coach Sarina Wiegman says that she is keen to see Manchester City goalkeeper Khiara Keating in the senior national team environment again ahead of this summer’s UEFA Women’s EURO.
The 20-year-old has had a challenging season but she has been handed an opportunity to return to the England senior squad ahead of next month’s UEFA Women’s Nations League double-header against Belgium.
When speaking in an England press conference, head coach Wiegman highlighted Keating’s quality and explained that she wants to assess the player in a national team environment next month.
“She’s a very talented goalkeeper and we have seen that again this weekend [against Chelsea],” Wiegman said.
“We want her in our environment. We are getting closer to the EUROs, so in this camp, we’ve brought in four goalkeepers. In the tournament, you can only name three but we just want those four goalkeepers in our squad and in our environment next week.”
While Keating is now back in the squad, England boss Wiegman reiterated the fact that the battle for the number one jersey is between Hannah Hampton and Mary Earps, although a decision is yet to be made on who will start in goal for UEFA Women’s EURO 2025.
She said “It’s a very hard decision to make [for the EUROs]. Right now, we have four very good goalkeepers in the squad. Hannah [Hampton] and Mary [Earps] are both competing for the number one position and they’re both world-class, they both bring different things and that makes it really hard. We haven’t decided if we make the decision now, we will first have conversations with them and move forward.”
Looking ahead to next month’s UEFA Women’s Nations League double-header against Belgium, Wiegman said that she anticipates two difficult challenges for the Lionesses.
She said “I think Belgium are a very tough, compact team. They can play physical and they’re very dangerous in the counter-attack. They can harm many teams in that aspect.
“They have a low block that’s really tight, so we will have to be really patient next week in our game, be very tight on the ball and take out counter-attacks.”
England face Belgium at Ashton Gate in Bristol on Friday 4 April 2025 before contesting the reverse fixture in Leuven on Tuesday 8 April 2025.
