England take a two-goal lead into the second leg of their Women's World Cup qualifying play-off against Greece on Tuesday - but should it have been more? Sarina Wiegman's side claimed a 3-1 victory in Crete on Friday but left the door open for their opponents - and the manager has demanded more ruthlessness from her team in Leicester ( ). The Lionesses had 74% possession in the first leg but only netted three goals from their 26 shots and conceded in the second half, while Greece also hit the bar with a powerful strike.
It is not the first time the Lionesses have struggled to make the most of their chances, so is it an area they need to address? England's lack of ruthlessness in front of goal has been an occurring theme since 2023 when they finished runners-up to Spain in the World Cup. In that tournament, they came through the group stage unconvincingly, beating lower-ranked opposition Haiti and Denmark, both 1-0.
In the knockout stage, they got past Nigeria via a penalty shootout and had to come from behind to beat Colombia 2-1 in the quarter-finals. In World Cup qualifying this year, England have performed well but have not won with ease, edging past Iceland and Spain and under-firing against Greece. They are creating chances though, and had 58 touches in the opposition box against Greece and 210 passes in the final third.
"We played differently back then [in 2023]. There's a lot more pressure when you're at the World Cup," said midfielder Keira Walsh. "In these [qualifying] games, the worrying thing would be if we were not arriving in the final third.
That would be a bigger problem. "It's the final pass, final cross and final shot. That was what was missing [on Friday].
I see the girls do that in training every day. They are fantastic at it. "It's just putting that in the game tomorrow and hopefully we will." Walsh said their hesitancy in front of goal was "frustrating" and they know there is work to do in the second leg.
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