England ‘not playing football to beat the critics’, says Wiegman

Sarina Wiegman insisted that England “is not here to answer critics” prior to their nation collection with Spain in Wembley Stadium on Wednesday.

Wiegman became criticism when the Leeuwessen worked into a 1-1 draw in their opening match of the tournament against Portugal, after he had dominated the first half.

England has now won only two of their last six games in all competitions, with the European champions approaching this year's defending defense in Switzerland in a worrying form.

But prior to the face of Spain, in what a repetition of the World Cup Final 2023, Wiegman said that she is not going to silence the critics with a win over La Roja.

“We don't play football to beat the critics. We play football to win games,” said Wiegman.

“We will try to be at our best again tomorrow and be connected as a team. What we want to do is get more consistency, so we create momentum in the game and keep it longer.

“That is what we have experienced the last few games. Then we will continue.

“Sometimes things go really well, sometimes things don't go so well. We try to stay very neutral and say,” This is where we are now “.”

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– Lionesses (@lionesses) February 24, 2025

Alessia Russo was one of those players who were involved in their 1-0 defeat against Spain in the World Cup two years ago.

Russo was replaced by Lauren James during the rest of the final and ended as England's joint-top scorer in the tournament (three, level with James and Lauren Hemp).

But when he was asked if their last meeting with Spain was going to do revenge for their defeat at the World Cup, Russo wanted to keep that loss firm in the past.

“I think that revenge reflects a bit about the past for me, we are a new team. We now have many new faces and many new qualities in the team,” Russo said.

“We don't want to look back. It is clear that it hurts. You can ask every player in that game. It was not fun to lose, but we want to continue.

“We have a new chance, we are back at Wembley, we have all our fans there. We are really looking forward to that.”