Wiegman Emphasizes Importance of Setbacks for England's Growth
Sarina Wiegman, who has led England to consecutive European titles, stated that her "hurt" England team requires setbacks such as their recent heavy loss to Spain to foster improvement.
The Lionesses suffered a significant 4-0 defeat in Majorca on Friday, which jeopardized their chance for automatic qualification to the 2027 Women's World Cup.
England must now rely on world champions Spain dropping points against Iceland on Tuesday to avoid entering the play-offs scheduled for this autumn.
England will face Ukraine simultaneously at 20:00 BST at Hill Dickinson Stadium and must surpass Spain's result to top their group.
"You don't want these moments, but at some point you need some setbacks to get even more urgency to improve and to do better now, when you have the time to do that," Wiegman told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"We had these moments before Euro 2025 too, when we had friendlies and we tried out things. It gave us a big setback, and we thought 'OK, what can we do better?'"
"We have a year to work on that. But the first thing is now we have to play Ukraine. We want to win that game.
"We want to give a great performance and show as individuals, and as a team, how good we are. After that, we'll see what our next challenge is in October."
Spain Expose England's Weaknesses in Defeat
Despite England's 1-0 victory over Spain in the reverse fixture at Wembley in April, Spain dominated the recent encounter on Friday.
This defeat gave Spain the advantage in their head-to-head record, placing England's qualification hopes out of their own hands.
Only the group winner secures automatic qualification, meaning either the European champions or the reigning world champions would miss out.
Wiegman revealed that a member of her staff will monitor Spain's match against Iceland but that the players will not be informed of the scoreline, as they focus on securing a win against Ukraine.
She also indicated plans to make "some changes" to the squad that faced Spain, with all 24 players training at Melwood on Monday afternoon.
"Of course it doesn't feel nice and it should be like that because this is not what we wanted. There was disappointment and there was hurt," Wiegman added.
"We're a competitive team. We want to win. We were really disappointed - it's a big setback. At the same time, we had a day of disappointment and then we move on.
"That's how it works. We stick together. We want a good performance and to show we're England and that we can come back from those moments."
Hemp Urges Calm After Disappointing Performance
England forward Lauren Hemp, who contributed to Manchester City's WSL and FA Cup victories this season, admitted that sleeping on Friday night was "very hard" as the team processed their disappointing display.
The quality gap between England and Spain was a concern, especially with the World Cup just a year away.
The two nations have built a respectful and competitive rivalry over the last three major tournaments during Wiegman's tenure.
England triumphed in the Euro 2025 final and defeated Spain in the 2022 quarter-finals, while Spain won the 2023 World Cup final.
Hemp stressed that England can compete with any team and insisted it is "not time to panic" as they prepare for their final qualifying match against Ukraine.
"It wasn't a great performance from us. We know every individual is better than what we showed the other day," Hemp told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"It's not time to panic as we know we can perform at higher levels. We proved that only a month ago. It's important we keep showing up. There are no excuses.
"We need to put on a performance that our fans deserve and that they deserved the other night and we weren't able to show.
"We will go out there with a great mentality. We know how to bounce back from that. The performance will be just as important as the result."
