England came away from Greece with a valuable first-leg lead in their Women's World Cup qualifying play-off - but what did we learn? Sarina Wiegman's side are looking to secure their place in Brazil next year but have to navigate the play-offs after finishing runners-up in their qualification group. The back-to-back European champions won 3-1 in Crete on Friday night and will need to finish the job against Greece on Tuesday in Leicester ( ).
The winner of the tie faces Ukraine or Slovakia in round two to decide who will head to Brazil. Lucy Bronze withdrew from the squad with a minor injury earlier this week, handing a rare opportunity to Manchester United captain Maya le Tissier. The defender is a key player for her club but struggles to break into the England team with Bronze understandably a tough figure to displace.
Wiegman sees Le Tissier as a right-back as opposed to a centre-back - which is her position at United - and that meant she was handed a start against Greece. Making her 15th cap, Le Tissier was a standout performer and was rewarded with her first international goal in the 63rd minute, providing optimism for a future without 34-year-old Bronze. "As soon as we were in possession, she was higher on the pitch and she already came close to a couple of moments with crosses," said Wiegman.
"I'm very happy for her and for the whole team because that was an important goal." It was just England's third win in their past eight competitive away games. A 3-1 victory is a pleasing result, but given the gulf in class, Wiegman admitted frustrations at not keeping a clean sheet. There were familiar lapses in concentration defensively that gave Greece opportunities to pounce.
Ioanna Papatheodorou struck the crossbar in the first half, before teeing up Kallisti Brouksair for their goal later on. Those chances came from England errors and the lack of clean sheet means the door remains open for Greece in the second leg. We have to show up on Tuesday, play a good game and then we should be better than Greece," said Wiegman.
"Of course we want to take some more distance [in the scoreline], that's absolutely true, but at the same time we won and that's the most important thing. "Sometimes we played really well and sometimes we were a bit sloppy. We were a bit frustrated as we wanted to do that better.
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