Sarina Wiegman’s side put in a thrilling performance to beat Greece 8-1 on aggregate and advance one step closer to the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.
The Lionesses now look ahead to playing Ukraine, who beat Slovakia 1-0 (4-1 aggregate), on Saturday 5 December at Wembley stadium.
Alessia Russo, Lauren James and Georgia Stanway made their way onto the score sheet, with winger Lauren Hemp creating two first half assists.
Lauren James had the assist for Russo’s goal before opening up the scoring for herself with two goals, both of them rockets into the back of the net. “James came into the midfield too, you’ve got to press her, play her higher up the pitch to the get the most results out of her.”
Lexi Potter made her lionesses debut, starting the match and almost managed to score a goal of her own. Unfortunately, Stanway’s foul on Greek defender Eleni Makou, saw her hope of a dream debut goal diminished.
Wiegman had much to say on Potter’s performance, “She found her footing, she found connection playing forward and I liked her in the midfield a lot. She’s a fresh update to the team. Shame about her goal but I know she plenty more to come.”
Ukraine is a side that England have beaten twice in the league phases by an aggregate of 9-1. England have won seven of their last eight qualifying matches, scoring a complete total of 21 goals and have only conceded six times. Their only defeat was Spain away, who are World Cup defending champions.
England will be a tricky team for Ukraine to play next, considering they have already played England three times before this, and lost all three times, Iya Andrushchak’s side are in for a battle of their own.
Russo’s performance against Greece proved to be working for Wiegman and her plans to keep this formation open for the likes of James to push through with the opportunities as the number 10. “We have the framework, we wanted the positioning to be right, these connections are the ones that open pockets.”
“I want us to be in possession the whole time, I want the players to have this freedom to change their roles and move around the pitch which currently seems to be working and I planning to keep these roles for our game against Ukraine.”
Ukraine ended group C with 0 points, losing all their matches in the initial group stages. However, they finally seem to be finding their footing in the play offs.
Wiegman seems to have found her preferred wingback and wing formation with Le Tissier and Hemp ahead of the final stage with Ukraine: “That connection between Le Tissier on the side and Hemp, really helped and I think we did better Friday and had more balance with the strikers getting more opportunities.”
