Wiegman lauds the Lionesses' positive reaction to their Olympic disappointment

Sarina Wiegman hailed England’s positive reaction to their Olympic disappointment with convincing wins over Austria and Italy during their warm weather training camp.

The Lionesses followed up their 7-2 thrashing of Austria last week with a resounding 5-1 victory over Italy on Tuesday.

The two friendlies were the first time England had played since failing to qualify for the knockout stages of the Nations League, which served as qualifiers for the Olympics, in December and Wiegman was pleased with the way her team responded to that disappointment.

‘I think I might be the most happy with that part,’ Wiegman said.

‘Of course it was a huge disappointment in December, although I thought we had a really good camp in December and I thought our game flowed again, so that was already really good and I think that’s what you saw now too.

‘Lots of energy in the team, minutes, players ready to go but also the connection with the under-23s who were really close and we could watch live too, which was really nice for us.

'We tell them that we work closely together but now they see that too. So I think we ticked so many boxes we would have liked to have ticked.

‘I think the whole camp pleased me. We had the opportunity to play many players, basically everyone except for Fran [Kirby], see what the level is, see players in some positions and the connection between players.

'When you have two wins like we have that’s really nice too.’

This warm weather camp in Marbella has served as preparation for the start of Euro 2025 qualifiers, which begin in April, and Wiegman said she has a clearer picture of where her team is at going into those fixtures.

‘You never know because things in football can change quickly.

'It gave us many answers to questions we had. We saw many players and played two good games.

‘We could take this opportunity to see so many players and play two very good games, train also, see the U23s.

'There are just very many positives about this week.

‘We tried out a lot of things. You can tell too that the competition is really high.

'We really want to know where we are now, what combinations we can pick.

'Then of course layers go back to club. In April hopefully we can make the best decision with the players available.’