Wiegman hails Lionesses´ mentality after England´s emphatic victory

Sarina Wiegman praised England’s mentality as they kick-started their Women’s World Cup qualifying campaign with a dominant 6-1 victory over Ukraine.

The Lionesses endured a slow start in Turkey, having failed to find the net inside the opening 45 minutes.

However, the floodgates opened in the second half, with Alessia Russo, Georgia Stanway and Jess Park all scoring braces, as the European champions eventually ran out commanding winners in the Women’s World Cup qualifier.

And Wiegman was pleased by the way her players responded to their fruitless first half.

“We didn’t score in the first half when we should have scored,” she told ITV. “We totally controlled the game, but just the final position in the cross and the quality of the shot or final touch wasn’t good.

“They dropped so deep, and with the crosses from far out, we were not able to score.

“We tried to create the chances or get more at the edge, in the half-spaces and have shots from the edge of the box, which we did a lot better in the second half.

“We put a lot of effort in, and we played the way we wanted to. We just wanted to score more goals.

“From where we had to cross and the kind of cross, we needed to change, which helped when we changed our wingers from one side to the other. That made it a bit easier for the team.

“Every time we lost the ball, we were so on it and that shows the mentality of the team.”

England finished with an impressive 4.91 expected goals to Ukraine’s 0.26 xG. The Lionesses posted 31 shots, with 13 of those on target.

A dominant display.#Lionesses | @chase_uk pic.twitter.com/LFk2AZCLga

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) March 3, 2026

Russo also felt England did not do much wrong during the opening 45 minutes, but that they were rewarded for their persistence.

“I think it took us the first half to break them down,” the forward reflected. “I think we were still very good in the first half. They were defensively solid, but when the spaces opened, we took our chances.

“It wasn’t relief [when we scored the first goal]. We knew we had the quality in us, and it was just executing it in those moments. We were happy with how we were doing at half-time, but we needed to find our ruthless edge.

“We were still positive about it. It was finding the final moment, the final pass and the final shot. You saw that in the second half.”

The only blot for the Lionesses was their failure to register a clean sheet, as Yana Kalinina scored Ukraine’s consolation via a set-piece.

England take on Iceland in their next World Cup qualifier on Saturday.