England Women manager, Sarina Wiegman has praised her team for a “simple” 5-0 thrashing of Belgium in 2025 UEFA Women’s Nations League.
Lucy Bronze and Millie Bright opened the scoring before Aggie Beever-Jones and Keira Walsh netted their first senior international goals, either side of Jess Park’s breakaway strike as the Lionesses ran riot in a dominant home display at Ashton Gate, Bristol.
Wiegman post-match was pleased with the result despite having “dropped a little bit in tempo” during the second half before the substitutes added renewed intensity, but was pleased at how they didn’t overplay the game.
“What I really liked is we kept it simple, we kept playing our game, our England game, keeping it simple and it looks easy but it is pretty hard, and I enjoyed that.
“I basically said to the team about keeping it simple and staying together and everyone that came on the pitch was really ready to go and stayed up.
“We know where we are at and what we want to improve and we are working on it every day, and we need to keep having these connections because I do feel something is happening and we are getting closer.”
Wiegman added that the team had been “trying out things” during their four friendlies last autumn which allowed them to “learn” where they “didn’t do well enough as a team.”
Looking ahead beyond the Euros, Wiegman iterated that victories are vital as she briefly turned her focus to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
“Now, every game is competitive but these you have to win because we want to get in the best possible position for the World Cup draw too.”
Walsh had scored on her 83rd England cap which surprised Wiegman who “… didn’t know she had never scored,” as she also praised Beever-Jones for her performance.
“She first hit the post and then she got it in. And then Aggie just came on the pitch and was really good, very sharp. To get in that position and that timing, of course the cross was good too, but that is really good.
“She picks the space a lot, also for Chelsea, which is really nice. She feels where she has to be and she is an easy scorer.”
“Never be complacent”
England now turn their focus to the return leg in Leuven, Belgium, on Tuesday 8 April and Wiegman has warned that the Lionesses can’t approach it with a belief that they’re in a strong place performance wise.
“Tuesday is going to be a different game so now we don’t want to all of a sudden think we are in the best possible place, we know we have to improve things,” explained the ex Netherlands boss who acknowledged how different Belgium are to Portugal and Spain who they will play in their last two group fixtures.
“Belgium is a totally different opponent than what Spain was and Portugal is.”
“I would never be complacent. I will bring the team on the pitch that we think, in that moment, are the best players to play against Belgium.
Belgium were without some key players but Wiegman iterated that they can’t be underestimated at home given their counter-attacking ability.
“We also know they were missing two players, one in the back and Tessa Wullaerts up front, and still they had a couple of moments and are so dangerous on the counter-attack that we have to be really tight on the ball and patient to not give away counter attacks.
“They had some in the first half, not that many but a couple, and you can already see how dangerous they are.
“To put it into the bigger context, we are not going to get complacent, this is a good performance but we are not getting too high, we try to stay neutral and perform again on the next game.”
