Lauren Hemp says the England squad are sticking together after their heavy defeat against Spain on Friday and have vowed to bounce back from that setback when they face Ukraine in their final Women’s World Cup qualifier at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
The European champions were outplayed in a 4-0 defeat in Mallorca where they missed the chance to secure automatic qualification for the tournament in Brazil next summer, with Spain leapfrogging them at the top of the group. By virtue of their stronger head-to-head record against England, Spain have the group’s sole automatic qualification spot firmly in their hands.
Unless Spain drop points in Iceland, England are destined to contest the playoffs in October regardless of their result against Ukraine – but the Lionesses are not throwing in the towel yet. Hemp said: “It’s a disappointing result but in games like that you probably learn the most. It’s obviously not very nice losing how we did and by as much as we did, but it’s important for us to look back and review it and that’s what we did.
“As a group we’ve stuck together and I think that’s the most important thing about this team. It’s how we come together, especially after a tough result like that.
We’ve shown in the past that when we’ve had results like that, we’ve been able to bounce back and that’s what we plan on doing.”
The Spain result was the biggest defeat of Sarina Wiegman’s tenure as head coach and England’s heaviest in 17 years, since the 2009 European Championship final against Germany, but the manager says her team have already put it behind them.
“Of course it was a difficult night,” Wiegman said. “It felt hard, it hurt, it was sad, but we’ve moved on because we have another game tomorrow. It was good energy [in the post-game review], the team stuck together and we really want to show them tomorrow.”
England, who have secured back‑to‑back European titles but have never won a World Cup, trained on Monday at the Melwood training ground of the Liverpool women’s side. The full squad is available, but it was confirmed that the Manchester City goalkeeper Khiara Keating – who had already pulled out before the game last Friday because of a concussion – will not be fit to face Ukraine.
Wiegman indicated she will rotate her side. “It’s a qualifier [so] we want to win the game. There are some tactical decisions to make because we expect different challenges. I will make some changes because also some players will knock on the door and I want to see them, too.”
England and Spain, who met in the 2023 World Cup final but knew once the draw for this group was made that only one of them could qualify automatically for the 2027 edition, are level on 12 points from a possible 15, having both taken maximum points from their meetings with Iceland and Ukraine so far.
Wiegman added that she will be hoping Iceland can do her side a big favour, but she insisted her main focus would be on ensuring England win their own match. “I always know that football is unpredictable,” the coach said. “Everyone will think that Spain will win that game but we have seen so many unexpected scorelines.
“Of course, I’m hoping for that. At the same time, I’m totally focusing on our team, what we have to do to win the game. Then after that, we’ll see what happens.”
