‘They’re very tough to beat’ – England boss Wiegman expecting tricky test from Iceland | OneFootball

England head coach Sarina Wiegman says that this afternoon’s opponents Iceland will be a tough team to beat.

The Lionesses face the side ranked 16th in the Coca-Cola FIFA Women’s World Rankings at The City Ground in Nottingham in their second qualifying match for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027.

England are hot favourites to win the match but head coach Wiegman says that Iceland cannot be taken lightly.

“I think it’ll be a very strong test,” Wiegman said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “They’re very disciplined, very physical, a very direct team with a lot of pace. We’ve seen some of them earlier but also, against Spain. 

“They’re very tough to beat. We think we will have the ball a lot but it will be very hard to break down their defence.”

England’s greatest threat to FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027 automatic qualification are world champions Spain but Wiegman says that the Lionesses have full focus on their next challenge.

She said “We are not talking about Spain at all, we are only talking about Iceland and we know it’s going to be a very tough game. 

“Although, we think we will have the ball a lot, they have some very dangerous attacks with directness and they’re just tough to beat. We are really getting ready for it and we will have to be at our top level to win the game.”

England were held to a goalless draw by Ukraine in the first half of their opening qualification tie in Antalya, Turkey on Tuesday evening before netting six second half goals in a 6-1 rout. Wiegman was pleased to see her side stick to their processes and remain level-headed.

She said “It’s very important [to trust the process] and I think that’s what we shown on Tuesday [against Ukraine]. Of course, we wanted to score goals in the first half when we had some opportunities but the team shown [in the second half] that we could do better. 

“We had to change pictures a little bit but we stuck to the plan and everyone kept doing their tasks together. We stayed calm, kept doing our tasks while there was also some freedom upfront to take actions. Also, in defensive transition, you could see that moments where we lost the ball, we wanted it back so quickly and that says a lot about the mentality of the team.”

England’s FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027 qualifier against Iceland kicks-off at 12.30pm this afternoon. The game has been declared a complete sell-out.