{"id":8775,"date":"2026-03-04T02:40:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T21:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/lionesses-deliver-wiegmans-clear-win-to-make-world-cup-statement\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T02:40:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T21:10:02","slug":"lionesses-deliver-wiegmans-clear-win-to-make-world-cup-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/lionesses-deliver-wiegmans-clear-win-to-make-world-cup-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionesses deliver Wiegman&#8217;s &#8216;clear win&#8217; to make World Cup statement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/topics\/cn91vqq4d5wt\">Emma Sanders<\/a>BBC Sport women\u2019s football news reporter<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published20 minutes ago<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#comments\">6 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A &quot;clear win&quot; was what Sarina Wiegman wanted from her England side against Ukraine &#8211; and that was what the Lionesses delivered.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing just one team from their group qualifies automatically for the 2027 Women&#x27;s World Cup, England needed to make their superiority count.<\/p>\n<p>World champions Spain await them in April, with many expecting the two sides to go head-to-head for the top spot in their qualifying group.<\/p>\n<p>So when England went into the half-time break on Tuesday at 0-0 against a Ukraine side 30 places below them in Fifa&#x27;s rankings, fans could be forgiven for anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>But the two-time European champions found their ruthless streak in the second half, netting six goals to <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/live\/c9v01njjzjkt#Report\">win 6-1<\/a>, setting their campaign off in perfect fashion.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/c0rjg4gqdkjo\">\n<p>How do Lionesses solve full-back succession problem?<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published2 days ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>&#x27;They didn&#x27;t figure it out in first half&#x27;<\/h2>\n<p>It was a new-look England as Wiegman is managing the return of several key players from injury, while rewarding those in form.<\/p>\n<p>Manchester City&#x27;s Laura Blindkilde Brown was handed a rare start, while London City Lionesses defender Poppy Pattinson made her debut in the second half. <\/p>\n<p>The back four in the starting XI had fewer than 100 caps combined &#8211; with captain Leah Williamson earning 65 of them &#8211; as Maya Le Tissier was at right-back over Lucy Bronze, while Taylor Hinds started her third game in four matches at left-back.<\/p>\n<p>In-form Jess Park was playing out wide, as she has done for Manchester United so impressively this season, rather than in midfield where Wiegman has often used her.<\/p>\n<p>It was uncharacteristically experimental from Wiegman considering this was their first competitive fixture since Euro 2025 and it took time to take shape.<\/p>\n<p>England had 40 touches in the opposition box and 85% of the possession in the first half, but failed to score from their 15 efforts on goal.<\/p>\n<p>The tempo had dropped, Ukraine were defending well and England&#x27;s hopes of flying out of the blocks had not materialised. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;They didn&#x27;t quite figure it out in the first half. They were a little bit stunned about what to do,&quot; ex-England midfielder Fran Kirby told BBC Radio 5 Live Extra.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Ukraine defended really well. They were really tight between the lines and they made it very difficult for England. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;They needed to have a little bit more composure in the box instead of crossing it for the sake of crossing it. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;The second half showed that they learned from the first half in terms of what wasn&#x27;t working.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>With a side stacked full of quality, the two-time European champions responded in the second half.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal striker Alessia Russo netted two goals in four minutes to put England in control, before a double from Georgia Stanway took them out of Ukraine&#x27;s reach.<\/p>\n<p>Wiegman&#x27;s &quot;clear win&quot; was confirmed when Park also scored twice later on.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I think it took us the first half to break them down. We were still very good in the first half. They were defensively solid,&quot; said Russo afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;When the spaces opened, we took our chances. I wouldn&#x27;t say it was relief [when we scored]. We knew we had the quality in us and it was just executing it.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It was finding the final moment, the final pass and the final shot. You saw that in the second half.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2>How does victory set England up?<\/h2>\n<p>Tuesday&#x27;s match was played in Turkey, with Ukraine unable to host the fixture because of the ongoing war with Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine&#x27;s players had to take a 15-hour coach journey to the Mardan Stadium for the game.<\/p>\n<p>The Lionesses, back-to-back European champions, had recognised superstars in their squad, and went to the match as heavy favourites.<\/p>\n<p>It was a fixture they simply had to win. <\/p>\n<p>Rivals Spain did their part with a <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/live\/cg5n17mmj1dt\">3-0 win<\/a> over Iceland and they will be expected to get maximum points against weaker opposition in their upcoming fixtures. <\/p>\n<p>If the Lionesses hope to keep up with the defending world champions, and give themselves a chance of earning automatic qualification, they need to beat Ukraine and Iceland, and do it convincingly.<\/p>\n<p>It could come down to goal difference to separate England and Spain, though there is a lot of football still to be played before then.<\/p>\n<p>It was a message Wiegman made subtly before the match &#8211; that England needed to be ruthless.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It is very important, of course, we know the group. For ourselves, we want to play a very good game and we want to get a clear win which gives us a good starting position going into the next game against Iceland,&quot; she said before kick-off.<\/p>\n<p>April&#x27;s first showdown against Spain at Wembley is likely to be hugely significant. It will be a repeat of the Women&#x27;s World Cup final in 2023 &#8211; where Spain beat England &#8211; and the Euro 2025 final, where the Lionesses got their revenge.<\/p>\n<p>And that is clearly on the players&#x27; minds with England midfielder Georgia Stanway &quot;very disappointed&quot; to have conceded against Ukraine, impacting the goal difference.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We&#x27;ll look back and see what the mistake was,&quot; she said. &quot;Potentially it was me. I needed to track her but I need to watch it back. Overall, it was a solid start.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>England top the table with a two-goal advantage over Spain heading into Saturday&#x27;s game against Iceland at Nottingham&#x27;s City Ground (12:30 GMT) and will hope to take a big leap forward when they face their rivals in April.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bbc.in\/3FKaVLN\">Head here to get involved<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/teams\/england-women\">England Women&#x27;s Football Team<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\">Football<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/womens\">Women&#x27;s Football<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lionesses deliver Wiegman&#x27;s &#x27;clear win&#x27; to make World Cup statementImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Alessia Russo (left) was one of three England players to score twice against&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}