Sarina Wiegman blasts England's 'unnecessary' defeat to Belgium
- England suffered their fourth loss under Wiegman at the hands of the Belgian Red Flames
- It is the first time the Lionesses have conceded three goals in a game under Wiegman
- England now face a tough road to qualify for Paris Olympics in 2024
By Emily Keogh
Sarina Wiegman criticised England's performance in the 3-2 loss to Belgium on Tuesday but said her side would not panic after the defeat put Team GB's qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics at risk.
The Lionesses suffered a crushing 3-2 loss to Belgium in the Nations League in a careless performance to leave their Nations League and Paris 2024 hopes in the balance.
"We're very disappointed, we are frustrated too. I think this was unnecessary," Wiegman said.
"What we wanted to do was to play better than Friday and we won Friday, and a couple of things we wanted to do better today, but in the end we were too sloppy.
"So, we have work to do, as always, we always have work to do, but we had hoped to do that better."
Belgium took the lead through Laura De Neve's free-kick before Lucy Bronze and Fran Kirby put the Lionesses ahead. Tessa Wullaert then brought the sides level before netting from the penalty spot in the 85th minute to claim the win.
"That's life, and so that's football too, we're not panicking," Wiegman added. "As always we'll work hard and fight to become better. As soon as we come back together then we start working again and want to do better again next game.
"You see that we're trying hard, you saw in the second half. We were trying to find the space and we were trying to have different crosses and play a possession game into the final third but we just missed in the final perfect touch to do that, although we did create chances to score goals."
Currently sitting third in Nations League A Group 1, England now need to win their next two games and beat the Netherlands by two goals while hoping Belgium drop points elsewhere.
"It's very tight," the England boss continued. "We can only do what we can do, so we know what we have to do. We play at Wembley [against the Netherlands], that's always very exciting, so we're looking forward to that.
"But we also want to show again what we are, and that we can do better, against a top opponent of course, too. We have to win and we have to win by more than one, and then we have to win [against] Scotland, so it's very clear."
Alex Greenwood suffered a nasty head injury and received treatment for 12 minutes before being stretchered off. Wiegman revealed the Manchester City defender had a concussion but was walking and talking.
"She's fine," Wiegman said. "I haven't spoken to her yet. I also haven't spoken to the doctor about it yet, but I heard she's walking around. Obviously she has a concussion, but it's good news just that she's walking around and doing fine."
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