The first, avoiding an almighty upset and progressing past Greece on aggregate in their Women’s World Cup playoff to reach a final tie, should be a formality for one of the world’s best-resourced teams. The second, honing their style to play like contenders for next summer’s World Cup in Brazil, is a far trickier but crucial challenge. Friday’s relatively uninspiring 3-1 first-leg victory in Crete left room for improvement and England had plenty to work on as they trained at St George’s Park on Monday under gloomy-looking clouds.
More broadly, over the next eight months, there are six questions facing the European champions. England had 58 touches in Greece’s box and turned that into three goals, whereas Greece had two touches in England’s box but managed to score and hit the crossbar. Sarina Wiegman said she was not happy her team had conceded.
Their defending in June’s 4-0 defeat by Spain also left much to be desired, and it feels as if England are not yet certain about who should be the captain Leah Williamson’s centre-back partner. Wiegman mentioned on Monday that stopping counterattacks was something they must fix – they also struggled defending quick breaks in April 2025 when losing in Belgium. That year, they found a way to win the Euros but they must tighten up defensively if they want to win a first world title in the Maracanã in July.
England were wasteful in the final third in Greece and not for the first time in recent months. In the World Cup qualifying group England were 1-0 and 2-0 winners over Iceland in games where they should have scored more. A ruthless Spain, the world’s No 1 side, secured 6-1 and 3-0 wins over Iceland.
On Monday Wiegman was asked what one element of Friday’s performance she would most like improvements on and replied: “The execution in the final third. We got in good positions but then it’s [about] staying onside, having the final pass, the right pass at the right moment, the run at the right time, and deciding what cross or cutback you’re going to choose.” For the past year, it has repeatedly felt as if Wiegman does not know who should start as the No 10, with Jess Park, Lucia Kendall and Laura Blindkilde Brown given chances along with Lauren James. Dropping – and recalling – Ella Toone, plus the late addition of Grace Clinton to this squad, adds mystery.
Erica Meg Parkinson’s debut on Friday adds another youngster into the mix, and Beth Mead can also play as a 10. Asked on Friday whether the No 10 position had the most question marks surrounding it, Wiegman said: “There’s a lot of competition on that position, where we have a lot of options, which also means, tactically, we can do different things. You can call it a ‘question mark’ – I call it many options.” England’s left-wing starting position feels nailed on for Lauren Hemp, who has been in tremendous form for Manchester City.
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