Republic of Ireland fixture another important part of England’s journey says Wiegman

England head coach Sarina Wiegman says that her side’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 qualifier against the Republic of Ireland represents another important part of the team’s journey.

The Lionesses take on The Girls in Green at Norwich City’s Carrow Road on Friday evening. England are currently in third position in their qualifying group and they have the opportunity to move back into the automatic qualification places with a win.

When speaking in the pre-match press conference, England boss Wiegman said that the Republic of Ireland will be tough opponents and that the game will be another important step on the Lionesses’ journey.

“It’s another important game in our journey to qualify automatically for the EUROs,” Wiegman said. “We want to improve our game too. 

“While Ireland haven’t got any points yet, they’ve been challenging all of the teams in this competition. We expect them to be really tough again tomorrow.

“We approach every game to win but we want to play well too and control the game a little better than we did the last time we played them. That’s what we want to take with us tomorrow.”

Nothing will be decided on Friday evening, however, Wiegman is demanding a good performance from her side which will set England up nicely for their showdown with Sweden in their final group game.

She said “It comes down to Tuesday’s game but tomorrow’s game is also an important one for the team because we want to win, we want to be in the best possible place before we go to Sweden. 

“While things are also dependent on the other game, it’s so close that we can still top the group too.

“Our approach is that we want to win the game tomorrow and hopefully, we can get another great result on Tuesday and be in the best possible position.”

England return to Norwich for the first time since February 2022 and Wiegman is looking forward to the occasion.

She said “It’s nice. We’ve played here once before against Spain in the Arnold Clark Cup. It’s nice to be back, it’s a little warmer now, the pitch looks really good, so I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. It’s sold out and hopefully, we can have a good game and send the fans home happy.”

England’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 qualifier against the Republic of Ireland takes place at 8pm on Friday evening.