‘It hurts. I expected a different game’: Wiegman’s shock at Spain humbling

Sarina Wiegman said she wants to see a reaction from her Lionesses after England suffered their heaviest defeat in 17 years against Spain. It was a humbling evening for Wiegman and her team, who needed a win or a draw to qualify for the World Cup. Even a defeat by a single goal would have kept the chance of topping their qualifying group alive. Should Spain beat Iceland and England also win against Ukraine on Tuesday night, to leave the teams level on points, Spain would secure automatic qualification and the Lionesses would face the playoffs because the world champions have the better head-to-head record. “Of course it hurts,” said the England manager, following the 4-0 defeat in Mallorca. ”I expected a totally different game. I expected a very tight game, a very competitive game, but it was different tonight, so that’s of course really disappointing and that hurts.” Wiegman said her side started well against Spain, but were undone by the first goal that took a heavy deflection and then they “couldn’t get to another gear and keep the ball and go forward and create chances” as their opponents dominated and the game ran away from them. “[The deflection] was unlucky, but after that we didn’t get momentum any more,” she said. “We were really struggling to keep the ball and find the passes further away or in behind. They played really well and we didn’t play so well. …