Wiegman: Patience 'very important' in Greece play-off

Sarina Wiegman believes the Lionesses will need to be patient in their FIFA Women's World Cup 2027 play-off against Greece on Friday despite wanting to “dominate the game”.

England’s women continue their journey to Brazil with a first leg tie in Crete as they look to reach the final stage of the play-offs and seal a spot at next summer’s showpiece.

Wiegman wants her players to focus on being “the best we can be” against Greece, but admits they may need to keep cool heads as they attempt to break down the opposition at the Pankritio Stadium.

Asked if patience will be important ahead of next week’s second leg at Leicester’s King Power Stadium, Wiegman told her pre-match press conference: “Yeah, that is very important.

“We want to dominate the game. We have to move the ball very quickly, we want to play very dynamically.

“We also have to be patient because when you have the ball and you are quick, you hope the opponent has to run a lot and you create spaces.

“So that’s of course what we’re going to try to do tomorrow and be really tight on the ball and wait until we get the chances to go forward and score goals.”

Asked whether simply reaching the next stage of the play-offs and moving one step closer to the World Cup was more important than performances in the next two games, Wiegman said: “Of course, that’s the main goal and we bring it back to what do we have to do tomorrow.

“We’re fully focused on how we want to play tomorrow and what do we expect from Greece. We’ve never played them before, they’ve done well in their campaign too.

“Our game plan is ready, being the best we can be and then we absolutely want to dominate that game tomorrow and win it, of course.”

Lucy Bronze was forced to pull out of the squad after picking up a minor injury, with Ella Toone cutting a holiday to Spain short in order to take her place for the games against Greece.

Expanding on Bronze’s injury, Wiegman said: “She’s good but unfortunately not good enough to be involved tomorrow and Tuesday. It’s a little bit too early but she’s good. It was a really small injury and she will recover.”

Asked about her decision to call up Toone instead of a defender to replace Bronze, Wiegman added: “We have a lot of versatility in the team and on that position I wanted an extra player so that’s why I called her and she was absolutely ready to come in.

“She was in Spain, she was training really hard and enjoying herself a bit too, but she has had a lot of loads under her belt this week so she’s in a good place.

“I think we have enough defenders. For how we want to play tomorrow, we have enough options on the position that Lucy would play. If we look at the balance of the team then this was the best decision.

“When I gave her [Toone] the call [to say she hadn't made the original squad], of course that was a hard call but she took that straight away, [she was] very disappointed but the first thing she did was [think] ‘how am I going to get back?’.

“She has the support around her too. Also the way she spoke about it, I thought that was really good.”