England Lionesses’ manager, Sarina Wiegman has urged title rivals to “don’t underestimate us” after scrappy 1-0 victory over Austria in 2022 UEFA Women’s Euro opener.
In front of an electric UEFA Women’s Euro record crowd of 68,871 at Old Trafford, England fought their way past Austria in a scrappy performance as Beth Mead produced a 16th minute chipped winner for the hosts despite an unsuccessful late clearance on the goal line.
Speaking post-match about her nervy goal winner which required a VAR check, Mead said: “I was pretty sure it went over [the line] but you always doubt yourself when there’s a little bit of time in between but I was pretty sure it went over.”
Wiegman meanwhile described the performance as “solid” but spoke about the evolution of performance levels across the match, as she commented: “I think we’ve shown different faces in this game, some good faces and some not so good faces.
“We started not very good in the first half, we got a little better. The second half we created chances but we were too sloppy on the ball.”
Nevertheless the ex Netherlands manager is “really happy” with an opening victory, despite the fact that the team failed to score more than once in a match for just the fourth game under her reign since September 2021.
Wiegman consequently believes that this performance demonstrated the level of quality within the team to fight for wins no matter how difficult matches get, as she issued the following warning to England’s rivals: “Don’t underestimate us.”
The 52 year-old boss however iterated she isn’t entirely irritated by the sloppy but frantic display at Old Trafford as she admitted that she believes the players “.. can do better than this.”
Wiegman though praised the crowd for producing “incredible” noise throughout the match with the stadium bouncing even before kick-off.
Wiegman’s thoughts on the crowd atmosphere was echoed by captain, Leah Williamson who said: “It was loud, communication with each other becomes harder and there’s times when it can kind of get in the way but I would take that any day.”
Williamson also agreed with her boss that the match “was definitely not our best performance.”
The versatile centre-back and midfielder also noted how “important” it was to get three points on the board in Group A, yet feels that there are aspects of their play to improve which she thinks is “good” in terms of giving the team “… something to strive for.”
Williamson however noted that tournament football is something “different” compared to friendly tournaments or Qualifiers, as she added: “The game changes and everything’s a lot more important that it was before.
“You start settling into it and it’s annoying that you grow as the tournament goes on so we’ve done it, we’ve walked out with all the pressure and expectations everybody externally was trying to put on us and it’s over now and we’re off to a good start.”
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