Win over Spain a reminder England ‘can compete with the best’, says Wiegman | OneFootball

The England head coach, Sarina Wiegman, said her team “reminded themselves they can compete with the best” with their victory over the world champions Spain at Wembley.

Jess Park’s second senior England goal, and her first since her debut in November 2022, gave the European champions a 1-0 victory on a night when they produced one of their best performances since the 2023 World Cup final.

Asked how much self-belief the victory could give England before the defence of the Euros title this July, Wiegman said: “Of course that gives [us] a boost. We showed ourselves again tonight that we can compete with the best. We’ve shown that before and it was really good to show that again. Mainly to ourselves, but also of course when you play such an intense game, I think the fans who were in the stadium enjoyed the game.”

Wiegman was particularly pleased with the “fight” England showed in their battling defensive efforts, as she added: “The fight and togetherness is the most important thing. It was an absolute team performance. We fought for every yard on the pitch, against a very good opponent.

“We played in-possession well, in moments of the game. Of course against Spain you also know you have to defend really well to keep the ball out of the net and we did that well. Of course, they did get a couple of opportunities but, overall, I’m really happy how the team stood up and how we worked so hard to get this over the line.”

The result means England end the February international break with four points from two games to sit joint-top of their Nations League group alongside Portugal, who were 1-0 winners away against Belgium.

Spain, who had fought back from 2-0 down to beat Belgium 3-2 on Friday, spurned several opportunities in front of goal, including two clear chances for the Arsenal midfielder Mariona Caldentey.

The Spain head coach, Montse Tomé, said: “I do think that Spain deserved more from the game, particularly with the situations we created in the final third.

“England had a lot of defending to do, but that’s football. We didn’t manage to score and we don’t get any points tonight. It was a high-level match. We had chances that we simply didn’t take. That’s an area that we need to improve on and we will improve.”

Header image: [Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian]