{"id":5500,"date":"2026-04-15T19:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/5500\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T19:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:54:10","slug":"england-vs-spain-hemp-secures-win-in-european-world-cup-qualifiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/5500\/","title":{"rendered":"England vs Spain: Hemp Secures Win in European World Cup Qualifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UEFA is gearing up for the 2027 World Cup, as England and Spain sparred for one of four automatic berths at this week\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/world-cup-qualifiers-2027-womens-world-cup-qualified-teams\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Women\u2019s European Qualifiers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>England landed the first blow against reigning champion Spain on Tuesday. The Lionesses defeated their continental rival 1-0 behind a <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/manchester-derby-win-shoots-man-city-to-the-top-of-the-2025-26-wsl-table\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lauren Hemp<\/a> strike to sit atop the league stage\u2019s Group A4.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Against Spain, you need to defend as a team really well, because their individual qualities are so high,&#8221; said Lionesses manager Sarina Wiegman. &#8220;We tried to annoy them a little bit and let them make mistakes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everybody knows you can&#8217;t go toe-to-toe with Spain for possession,&#8221; added England midfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/star-lionesses-step-back-as-england-drops-2025-euro-roster\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Keira Walsh<\/a>. &#8220;Our plan was to sit in a low block and when we had a chance, go forward. They had chances at the end but they&#8217;re an unbelievable team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>How UEFA Women&#8217;s European Qualifiers Set the World Cup Field<\/p>\n<p>The Women&#8217;s European Qualifiers run through December 2026, determining which European teams compete in the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. However, the tournament also impacts promotion and relegation ahead of the <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/nations-league-win-keeps-spain-at-no-1-in-latest-fifa-womens-soccer-rankings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">UEFA Women&#8217;s Nations League<\/a>, kicking off in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Four-group League A features Europe\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uefa.com\/womenseuropeanqualifiers\/standings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Top 16 teams<\/a> \u2014 with each group\u2019s winner earning a direct path to the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.<\/p>\n<p>League A\u2019s remaining 12 teams advance to end-of-year playoffs fielding UEFA\u2019s seven additional berths, with second- and third-place finishers facing lower-ranked nations via top seeding.<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday\u2019s other UEFA Qualifying winners include Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany, with three league-stage matchdays to go.<\/p>\n<p>How to Watch European Teams at UEFA World Cup Qualifiers<\/p>\n<p>UEFA Women&#8217;s European Qualifiers return on Saturday, as England takes on Iceland at 12:30 PM GMT on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.itv.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ITVX<\/a> in the UK. <\/p>\n<p>Group A&#8217;s Saturday lineup also features Denmark vs Italy, France vs Netherlands, and Austria vs Germany. See full schedule at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uefa.com\/womenseuropeanqualifiers\/news\/029f-1f49e8f7515a-b369c42a50ab-1000--women-s-european-qualifiers-for-the-2027-women-s-world-cu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">UEFA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UEFA is gearing up for the 2027 World Cup, as England and Spain sparred for one of four&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3753,3754,3755,2383,17,415],"class_list":{"0":"post-5500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-2026-european-qualifiers","9":"tag-2027-world-cup","10":"tag-2027-world-cup-qualifying","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-spain","13":"tag-uefa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5500","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=5500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}