Sarina Wiegman is not expecting England to have an easy ride when they face Scotland in the UEFA Women’s Nations League on Tuesday, despite the Scots needing to lose to have any chance of playing at next year’s Olympic Games.
England sit second in Group A1 with one game remaining, having kept their hopes of reaching the Nations League Finals alive with Friday’s thrilling 3-2 win over the table-topping Netherlands.
In addition to hosts France, only two European nations will qualify for the women’s football tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics, with those berths going to the top two teams from the top tier of the Nations League (excluding Les Bleues).
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England are the home nation tasked with securing qualification for Team GB, who Wiegman will coach if they reach the Olympics.
As a result, fellow home nation Scotland must lose to England to give the Lionesses a chance of securing top spot ahead of the Dutch, who host Belgium in their final game on Tuesday.
With England and the Netherlands level on the head-to-head tiebreaker, the Lionesses must win and hope the Dutch fail to do so, or better their margin of victory by three clear goals.
Wiegman, however, believes Scotland’s desire to get one over on their old rivals will take precedence over any calculations regarding the Olympics, saying: “If you have seen the history between England and Scotland… then you know there’s no way they’re going to give us an easy game.
“They really want to beat England and we want to beat them, of course.
“There’s a rivalry and we saw that when we played them in England [in September’s 2-1 win]. There’s no easy solution. This is about fair play and about football.”
Our last of 2023. 👊#Lionesses | @NuffieldHealth pic.twitter.com/vUfKQpBlao
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) December 4, 2023
England found themselves two goals down against the Netherlands at Wembley Stadium last time out before roaring back after the break, with Ella Toone’s stoppage-time strike capping a remarkable fightback from the Lionesses.
Wiegman is hoping for a better start on Tuesday, saying: “Every game we want to win and we take it from there. We know what we have to do, but the Netherlands and Belgium also know what they have to do.
“It’s still open but we’re going to give our best and hopefully that can bring us something special.
“We always try to have an attacking start, we want to score goals and we don’t want to concede any.
“We have to go out tomorrow and attack, and be wary that if we lose the ball we have to regain it as quickly as possible.”
Next stop, Glasgow!
✈️ 🏴 pic.twitter.com/weyi82oaPA
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) December 3, 2023
