Wiegman keen for England to avoid ‘fighting game’ against Wales | OneFootball

England head coach Sarina Wiegman says that she is keen for her side to avoid a fight against Wales in St. Gallen this evening.

The Lionesses complete the UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 group stage with a ‘Battle of Britain’. Victory will take England through to the quarter-finals while Wales are playing for pride.

When speaking to the media in the pre-match press conference, England boss Wiegman said that her side must look to control the game and avoid a battle.

“I hope we will see a game where we will have a lot of the ball and where we play very well in-possession, so that it doesn’t become a fighting game,” Wiegman said.

“Wales are a team that’s very compact, they can fight and they’re really together. When they have the ball, they can play direct but sometimes, they can play too. We want to prevent that and the best way to do it is to be good on the ball yourself, move it very quickly and try to exploit spaces.”

Wales will unboubtedly bring passion and commitment but Wiegman says that England will be up for the big occasion too.

She said “For them, it’s a big game but for us, it’s a big game too because we have to win. We want to get through the group stage and control that ourselves.

“Of course, we have heard about the rivalry. They want to do well but we do too. There’s passion but we have passion too and we just want to play really well, play football, play really good on the ball. We will need to be patient to break down their block.”

Wiegman made subtle changes to her side last time out and those adjustments brought real benefit as England defeated The Netherlands 4-0. The Lionesses boss says that knowing her best XI is tricky and that her side is selected on a game-by-game basis.

She said “It’s hard to say [what’s the best team]; things develop during the tournament and things have developed even from France to The Netherlands. What we also do is look ahead to the next game which is Wales and consider what we need and what’s best at this moment to start the best team against Wales.”

England’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 group stage fixture against Wales kicks-off at 8pm.