Sarina Wigman: England need hurdles to improve, says Lions manager

Sarina Wigman says a “damaged” England team will need setbacks like the humiliating defeat to Spain to improve.

The Lionesses missed out on qualifying for the 2027 Women’s World Cup a A poor 4-0 defeat In Majorca on Friday.

World champions Spain will drop a point against Iceland on Tuesday as they hope to avoid the knockout stages this autumn.

England, who face Ukraine at the Hill Dickinson Stadium at the same time (20:00 BST), will need to improve on Spain’s results to top the group.

“You don’t need these moments, but sometimes you need some setbacks to get more urgency to improve and do better now,” Wigman told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“We had these moments before Euro 2025, when we were doing friendlies and trying things. We had a big defeat, and we thought, ‘OK, what can we do better?’ We thought.

“We have a year to work on that. But the first thing is now we have to play against Ukraine. We want to win that game.

“We want to show a great performance and show individually, and as a team, how good we are. After that, we will see what our next challenge is in October.”