“I’m not concerned,” says Sarina Wiegman as Lionesses defeated in Belgium

Sarina Wiegman spoke to the media following England’s defeat against Belgium, just days after the Lionesses claimed a stunning 5-0 victory over the same opponent.

After a slow start from England in Leuven that saw Belgium race into a three-goal lead before Beth Mead pulled one back from the penalty spot, the Lionesses’ second half performance was much stronger – but not enough to force even a point

Debutant Michelle Agyemang was the star of the show, getting England’s second goal just 41 seconds into her senior debut. The 19-year-old had only been called up to the squad as an injury replacement over the weekend.

“She was great. She comes in, she does really well. I think she scored an incredible goal,” Wiegman told reporters in her post-match press conference at Den Dreef, “and the composure and calmness she had was really incredible. We do have to celebrate that a little bit for her. We haven’t done that because we were overall feeling really disappointed, but [her debut] was really good.” 

Wiegman did not try to hide her disappointment with the result, explaining that “we didn’t start well in the game. They were ruthless to counter-attack and the free-kick that they scored, so within thirty minutes we were 3-0 down. We had to fight back. We tried to come back into the game, we scored two goals but that was not enough. Tonight we were just not good enough.” 

Two changes to the defence at half time saw Millie Bright and Niamh Charles make way for Esme Morgan and Jess Carter, with Wiegman highlighting that “they had runners behind our defence all the time, so we wanted to bring in some pace.”

But despite a poor performance and defeat in Leuven for the second time in 18 months, Wiegman insisted: “I’m not concerned. This doesn’t feel good and it’s a huge learning for us. They played how we expected. We said we have to step up and we have to do better than Friday. We knew it was going to be totally different tonight. And that’s what we take as a learning, which will help us in the future.” 

“There are things in your journey that go well and don’t go well. We know where we want to be on the 5th July,” the 55-year-old Dutchwoman explained, with England set to face France in their opening match of UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 on that date.