arina Wiegman admitted her players “struggled with decision-making” at key moments during the Lionesses’ 2-1 victory over Scotland at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.
Headed goals from Lucy Bronze and Lauren Hemp gave England an opening-day win in the inaugural edition of the Nations League, but Scotland scored with the last kick of the first half and caused England real problems throughout the second period.
Wiegman demands high standards from her players, and was not always pleased with the options they picked when passing. She has guided them to Euro 2022 glory and this year’s World Cup final during her two-year tenure.
“I’m very happy with three very important points”, she said. “In the first half we played much better than the second half. We scored two good goals. Unfortunately, we also gave away a couple of counter-attacks and Scotland showed they were really dangerous in those moments.
“It was our own mistakes to give them those opportunities. In the second half we were struggling with the right decision-making, and kept playing short when we should have gone a little further.
“It was off the back of a World Cup, a very short turnaround and the players haven’t played any competitive games yet so I’m very happy. Sometimes you just have to get through. Sometimes if it doesn’t look beautiful, you can still win the game.”
If England finish in the top two of the Nations League, Team GB will be represented in the women’s football at next summer’s Olympics in Paris. It was announced this week that Wiegman would manage them should they qualify.
“The Olympics is far away, but potentially being the coach of Great Britain is very exciting. If that would be the case I would be very honoured and privileged to take that on.”
Bronze opened the scoring for England and said: “I’m from the North East and I used to play for Sunderland, so it was nice to score in this stadium and nice to be back home.
“This was one of the first men’s stadiums I played at, when I was 17 years old and we beat Chelsea here in the FA Cup. It brings back a lot of memories, being here. And obviously a lot of family and friends have been able to come here to the game, which is nice for me, personally. Being able to score makes it a little more special.”
