{"id":3322,"date":"2026-04-13T11:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/3322\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T11:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:45:11","slug":"sarina-wiegman-relishing-wembley-clash-with-spain-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/3322\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarina Wiegman relishing Wembley clash with Spain \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

England boss Sarina Wiegman is looking forward to another Wembley occasion against one of the world\u2019s best when they face Spain in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

England will welcome the world champions to the national stadium in the first meeting between the two sides since the Lionesses won the European Championship last summer on penalties.<\/p>\n

Both teams have won their opening two matches in World Cup qualification, beating Iceland and Ukraine, and a win for either would put them in a commanding position to take the one and only automatic spot from Group A3.<\/p>\n

\"EnglandEngland beat Spain on penalties in the Euro 2025 (Peter Byrne\/PA) <\/p>\n

Around 75,000 tickets have been sold and Wiegman is excited about the occasion.<\/p>\n

\"Tiernan<\/a>\"Masters<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking at St George\u2019s Park, she told a press conference: \u201cThese are the very competitive games. We are in the World Cup qualifiers, so there\u2019s more than this game.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to qualify for the World Cup, but when you\u2019re allowed to play at Wembley again and you play Spain at home with the fans behind us it is just really exciting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just feels like a very competitive game, and we have played so many games over the last couple of years against each other. We both, as well as the other teams in our group, want to qualify, and as quick as possible would be nice too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Midfielder Keira Walsh is set to earn her 100th cap for England if she is selected to play on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old has played a key part in the Lionesses\u2019 success, having won both the 2022 and 2025 Euros as well as being a part of the side that got to the 2023 World Cup final before losing to Spain.<\/p>\n

\"KeiraKeira Walsh is excited to win her 100th cap (Mike Egerton\/PA) <\/p>\n

Walsh said: \u201cIt\u2019s a very exciting moment. When I started playing football, I never thought that this was going to be possible, so it\u2019s a really proud moment for me and my family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a massive game, my full focus has been on that for the week. I\u2019ve not really thought too much about anything else but I\u2019m sure after the game, then I\u2019ll probably have some moments to reflect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really love the attention being on me. I do feel a little bit awkward about it. I just love playing football, so for me if it\u2019s one or 100 (caps), I still feel the same whenever I put the shirt on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember my first cap, there was not a lot of people in the crowd and tomorrow there\u2019s going to be 75,000 people at Wembley playing against one of the best teams in the world. I think that shows the growth of the women\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions around the fitness of captain Leah Williamson still remain heading into the crunch encounter.<\/p>\n

\"LeahLeah Williamson remains a fitness doubt for England (Mike Egerton\/PA) <\/p>\n

Williamson has been out of action since the middle of March with a hamstring injury but Wiegman did not give too much away about the Arsenal defender\u2019s availability heading into Tuesday.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cShe\u2019s moving forward \u2013 I don\u2019t think she does need to prove that much. We have to be really, really careful with her, she\u2019s careful and with her club we are careful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a plan and I don\u2019t want to give anything more away about that, she\u2019s moving forward well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England boss Sarina Wiegman is looking forward to another Wembley occasion against one of the world\u2019s best when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2383,313,2377,2378,2379,2380,1743,17,841,2381,2382],"class_list":{"0":"post-3322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-england","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-keira-walsh","11":"tag-leah-williamson","12":"tag-lionesses","13":"tag-sarina-wiegman","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-spain","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-womens-sport","18":"tag-womens-world-cup-qualifying"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}