Australia “will challenge us the way we need to be challenged” says Sarina Wiegman | OneFootball

Sarina Wiegman has said that England’s matchup against Australia is a necessary challenge in order to progress as a team.

It comes only days after the Lionesses were beaten 2-1 by Brazil at the City of Manchester Stadium.

On team news Wiegman said: “Anouk Denton has joined the squad. We have a squad of 25 now. Things are going well, everyone will be on the pitch, but we are still also recovering and in preparing stage for tomorrow. So if things go well, we will have to make a decision for the 23. I just did not want to take any risks.”

As for the test against Brazil, Wiegman emphasised the necessity for her side to face difficult and unfamiliar sides.

“Brazil challenged us in ways we have not been challenged that much in games, which is why I was so happy with that game. They just wanted to play one v one all over the pitch, which was harder later on, because we had an overload,” she said.

“The game tomorrow will challenge us in different ways. What we want to get to is, when in possession, being quicker in decision-making, better technical execution, and connections. That is what we talked about, what we want to take to the game tomorrow, and of course we want to take out those transition moments.

“Australia is a very powerful team. They are a top team. They play direct, and are starting to play in the build-up more too. So that is what we expect tomorrow, and let’s see how we can challenge them,” Wiegman added.

On Saturday, one of the questions from the media was about slow starts to games and wanting to solve that ‘problem’. When asked about it again, the England manager defended her side’s approach to games: “First of all, we didn’t start slow in the games you are [talking about]. In the Spain game, we started good, and we could have scored the 1-0. The Italy game too, and in the France game we started really well and scored a goal. So I don’t agree that we have slow starts all the time, we just got behind. I do agree that last Saturday, we didn’t start well enough. We had to get more physical, we talked about that in the review. The players felt the same, so we are definitely going to give everything to start better tomorrow.”

As for the fans who have travelled to support the Lionesses over the summer and beyond, Wiegman was full of gratitude

“The fans have shown so much support for us here in England, in Switzerland, and before. We are very grateful for that, and it really helps us. That is also one of the reasons we go around the country, and that we can get closer to people or people have the opportunity to come to our games. It’s sold out, which is incredible, we never take that for granted. Also because it’s on a Tuesday evening. It’s going to be a great support, we really enjoy it, and we try to connect with our fans.”

Ultimately, Wiegman explained that she views the Australia test in a similar light to the Brazil game which preceded it: an opportunity for her team to test themselves against one of the best teams on the planet.

“We are excited to go again tomorrow, that we have the opportunity to show who we are. We also know, in football, we play though opponents all the time, and also in these friendlies, we want to play top-level countries. They will challenge us the way we need to be challenged. If we want to improve our game, which is absolutely what we want, then we have to play top opponents, and that’s exactly what we do. So you can’t always control when you are going to win or lose. You are going to play to win, and at the same time, we want to improve every single game. And being challenged really shows areas we need to improve in,” Wiegman said.

Ella Toone also gave her thoughts ahead of the fixture, claiming that as far as England are concerned, there are no friendly games, particularly after a fiery clash against Brazil, who ended the match down a player.

“I thought we did really well against Brazil,” Toone said. “They definitely posed a threat that we haven’t been challenged against before. And we know that we are capable of putting up with that. And we know that the Australians are going to be the same, they are going to be physical all over the pitch. We broke a lot of their hearts out in the World Cup, so for them it will feel like a revenge game, and for us, we just want to go out there and put on a big performance. We know it’s going to be difficult.

“We are England. We want to win every game. These two games are friendlies, but to us, there are no friendlies in football. We want to win every game that we play in. It’s difficult when you lose a game, but there is a game right around the corner to put things right.”

Similarly to her manager, Toone had nothing but good things to say about the England fans ahead of the game at Pride Park.

“For women’s football, to sell out stadiums, it’s still a pinch-me moment. We love the fans, they have been amazing for us in every tournament we have played in. They’ve got bigger, and better, and louder, as the years have gone on. It’s something that we are really proud of as players, that we can go to different stadiums around the country and sell them out. We are definitely looking forward to having the fans there tomorrow.”

England will face Australia in Derby at 19:00 GMT on Tuesday 28 October.