Sarina: 'We want to take our game to the next level'

Sarina Wiegman says her England team will continue to strive for improvement and development, as they approach the second round of World Cup qualifying play-offs.

The Lionesses clocked up a 5-0 win over Greece on Tuesday evening, to progress through the first round with an aggregate scoreline of 8-1 following last week’s first-leg victory in Crete.

And Wiegman was pleased with the way her team performed in the game in Leicester, which she feels was an improvement on their first-leg display.

“I saw a lot of good things,” admitted the head coach, who also revealed that the half-time substitution of two-goal Lauren James was down to minute management.

“I think we wanted to do the things that we're trying to do better than Friday, and I think we've shown a lot better. Still, there's always improvements, but we've scored some great goals.

“We had an early goal. They pressed high in the beginning, and they did on Friday too and were very courageous, I would say. But then we got the first goal very quickly, that's very helpful.

“We had some more big chances and of course, we want to be ruthless all the time, but 5-0 is a pretty good score.”

One thing which Wiegman is keen to see from her squad is an adaptation to new ways of playing, as they look to evolve further in their bid to reach next summer’s World Cup Finals in Brazil.

“What we're trying to do is improve our game and we've played the system we did for a long time and we tried to improve that,” she explained.

“But now after the summer, we thought, okay, how can we evolve our style of play to become better?

“The football world is going so fast and we want to keep developing and taking our game to the next level. I also think that we have players to do this.”

England will now turn their attentions to November, when they will meet Ukraine in the second stage of the play-offs with a place in the World Cup Finals next summer on offer for the winners.

They’re a familiar opponent, having met and beaten them twice in their World Cup qualifying group last season, so Wiegman believes their preparations will now take their course.

“We will review that [previous matches with Ukraine], and we have seen them now,” she added.

“We'll just see what do they do, and how can we take out their strengths and show their weaknesses. And we want to improve our style of play again too.

“We expect that we'll be on the ball a lot again and we'll be in the final third a lot, so we can continue what we tried today.

“You want to improve your defending too but I do expect from the team and the quality we have, compared to Ukraine, that we will be in the final third a lot.”

This camp has also seen three new debutants for Wiegman’s team with Lexi Potter and Freya Godfrey both featuring on Tuesday, following on from Erica Meg Parkinson’s senior bow in the first leg.

“We’ve seen them a lot at their clubs and now with us too, they're huge talents,” she said.

“So, it’s really nice to see Erica [Meg Parkinson] come in on Friday and now Lexi [Potter]'s starting and Freya [Godfrey] is coming on.

“[Freya] had some great runs. That run and the pass was really good when she went one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Unfortunately, she didn't get that but you can see the talent so just give them a little bit of time.

“Lexi has done so well with Chelsea and she was ready last year. Of course we kept an eye on her, and now she's starting for Chelsea.

“She did really well and in our camp, she did really well straight away. But you can also tell, of course, in your first start for England, that's a big moment.

“You can tell with the positions she picks up, and she scored that goal and unfortunately it was disallowed, but nice for her.”