Wiegman aiming to find balance in Lionesses squad

Sarina Wiegman has asserted her desire to get off to a winning start in the UEFA Women’s Nations League after the England women’s head coach announced her squad selections for the two upcoming games earlier today.

The Lionesses will face Portugal in their Nations League opener next Friday before returning home to Wembley Stadium to take on Spain in a match-up which pits the European champions against the world champions. And Wiegman is raring and ready to go.

“First of all, we hope to win these fixtures,” she said. “It’s Nations League but it’s also getting us in the best possible position for the EUROs, but also for the draw for the World Cup later on.

“We will learn from every single game, but we want to win them too. They are going to be two very competitive games.”

There was also a recall for Chelsea’s Lauren James as Wiegman made a handful of changes to the line-up.

“I think what we all can see is that she’s (Ella Toone) enjoying her football,” she continued. “I’ve really enjoyed seeing her having fun playing football because that helps but putting good performances in too. I think that goes hand-in-hand.

“With Lauren, it’s the same as with Ella – she’s in a really good place and you can tell she’s enjoying her football. It took a while for her to come back but it’s good to see her fit, fresh and playing for her club.”

Manchester City’s Laura Blindkilde Brown and Ruby Mace also retained their places in the squad, having been called up to the senior team for the first time last time out in 2024.

Sarina Wiegman joins us live from Wembley Stadium 🎙️ https://t.co/bjgf7UO1Py

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) February 11, 2025

“What we’ve seen is that it’s really valuable that we’re really closely aligned with the under-23s,” she said. “We already have a lot of them young players in our squad and of course, it’s all about quality but many of them are in our squad now.”

After ending the calendar year on a high with victory over this year’s EURO hosts Switzerland at Bramall Lane, attention now turns to the summer and the road to a major tournament which will see the Lionesses defend their crown.

“That was the reason why we were so happy that we had four games in October, November and December,” she explained. “We said that was so valuable that we could try out things and see many players.

“Now, you have to find balance. You always want to win games and at the same time prepare for the EUROs, so we’re not going to change eight or ten players in a game. The main thing is that we want to win the games.”