‘We have to be better’ – England boss Wiegman reacts to draw with Czech Republic | OneFootball

England head coach Sarina Wiegman said that her side need to do the basics better after the Lionesses were held to a goalless draw by the Czech Republic at The Amex Stadium in Brighton last night.

Ranked 28th in the world, the Czech Republic defended with structure, organisation and commitment throughout. They held their shape very well, making it difficult for England to create quality goalscoring chances.

When speaking in the post-match press conference, Wiegman said that England were frustrated with the result and that they need to be better when doing the basics.

“We are absolutely disappointed because we think that we could’ve won the game,” Wiegman said. “We knew that the Czech Republic were a very tough opponent, very direct, only offering small spaces and they would drop a little deeper. That’s exactly what they did and we just have to do a little better.

“We created a couple of chances, first half we hit the post and in the second half, we had a couple of good opportunities to score a goal and we didn’t.

“They stayed in the game too and there were a couple of times where they looked very dangerous on the counter attack.

“For us, it was a very good learning moment about bringing the game to a higher level in those small spaces.”

There were one or two eyebrows raised when Wiegman selected the Czech Republic as her side’s second opponents of the October international window but England were given the stern challenge that their head coach had expected.

She said “They were (as good as expected) because we saw what they could do against the USA and they tied with The Netherlands twice in qualification.

“We saw how tight they are, how tough they are, how physical they are and how dangerous they can sometimes be on the counter attack.

“We knew (how good they were) but I just wish we had broken down their defence quicker. If we score the first goal, it gets easier and we tried to do that but it didn’t happen. In the worst case scenario, we would concede one ourselves but thankfully, that also didn’t happen.”

England complete the calendar year with international friendlies against Japan and Norway in Spain next month.