On Tuesday, England will face Belgium in the second match of a UEFA Women’s Nations League double-header. On Friday, the Lionesses put five past the Red Flames in front of a sellout crowd at Ashton Gate, with Keira Walsh and Aggie Beever-Jones netting their first senior goals for England.
England’s international window has been riddled with injuries, with Chloe Kelly withdrawing from the squad ahead of Friday’s match while Lauren James and Alessia Russo both suffered injuries during the game.
Jess Naz and Michelle Agyemang have been called up in their absence.
Sarina Wiegman spoke to the media ahead of Tuesday’s fixture, confirming that James “picked up a hamstring injury so she’ll be assessed at the club, but of course not available for Tuesday. It’s the same with Alessia, she had to go back to the club and she’ll be assessed there, hopefully she’ll be back soon.”
Despite sustaining unfortunate injuries, Wiegman was pleased with England’s performance in BS3 on Friday. She told reporters at Den Dreef:“We played a good game. They missed some players but you have to play your game as good as possible and what you can control and we did that well. Executing the game plan and keep doing that with the players that came on, I was really happy with that.”
“Tomorrow will be different. Players will be back, and the crowd here is really loud. I think they are going to try and play physical and be really compact. We expect everything. When we are at our best, I think we will play a good game.”
OH Leuven’s Stadion Den Dreef is a familiar ground for the Lionesses, who suffered a 3-2 loss when they faced Belgium at the ground in October 2023. That result is being used as motivation, Wiegman explained, suggesting that “we really want to show that we’re better than we were then, and we can do a lot better.”
Belgium will host England at Stadion Den Dreef, with the match set to get underway on Tuesday 8th April at 19:30 GMT [20:30 CET].