Sarina assesses England's defeat to Spain

England boss Sarina Wiegman felt her side come away from Barcelona and defeat to Spain in their final UEFA Women’s Nations League game with positives to take into this summer’s EURO 2025 tournament.

The Lionesses had a half-time lead against the World Cup winners thanks to a goal from Alessia Russo on her 50th appearance for England.

But Spain staged a second-half comeback with substitute Claudia Pina’s clinical double winning it for the hosts and sealing their place in the Nations League semi-finals.

“It was a very intense game, of course, we know they are very tight on the ball, but I thought we did well,” said Wiegman.

“After the first half, they had a little more of the ball, but we had the ball lot too and I think we could have been a bit tighter, a bit more patient in the first half too.

“But we can see where we can harm them, I think a couple more times we could have not been offside or played a little quicker behind or switched the game or switched play quicker, we could have harmed them even more.

“I think in the second half, they started really quick and they did something different, they pressed even higher and we had some trouble getting out of the press and keeping the ball.

“And of course then they brought Pina in, and she was very secure with her shots.”

Wiegman and her squad will now return to England, as she prepares to make her final decision over the 23 players who will head for this summer’s tournament in Switzerland.

And following on from last week’s 6-0 win over Portugal at Wembley and the opportunity to see her players over the course of the week, the head coach knows where she stands.

“We had a very good week,” she added.

“We’ve had players coming back from injury, players fighting for positions, fighting for minutes or for selection, and I think that is very positive.

“Now some will keep training because they need to train, others will take a couple of days off and then we move forward come together, get ready for Jamaica and then France.”