England provide “many answers to questions” with friendly wins, says Sarina Wegman

Sarina Wegman says England provided “many answers to the questions we had” in their friendly wins over Austria and Italy this month.

Their impressive performances culminated in a successful warm-weather training camp in Spain alongside the England Under-23s.

“I think the whole camp pleased me,” Wegman told ITV Sport.

The draw for the UEFA Euro 2025 qualifiers will be held on March 5 at 12:00 GMT.

Wegman added: “We had the opportunity to play with a lot of players – basically everyone but us [the injured] Fran Kirby – Get to know the level, see the players in certain positions, see the relationship between the players.

“When you get a couple of wins like we have, that's really cool too.”

Asked if she had learned a lot ahead of the first qualifiers in April, the England coach added: “You never know because things in football can change quickly, but it gave us many answers to the questions we had at the moment.”

“We can take this opportunity to see a lot of players and play a couple of good games, and also train and see the under-23 team. There are a lot of positives about this week.”

Wegman explained her intentions regarding rotating the team in Spain during a press conference at the team hotel in Marbella last week.

After suffering injuries to key players Kirby, Leah Williamson and Millie Bright, she was keen to see the depth of her team in these non-competitive matches.

Among those hoping for opportunities include Manchester United midfielder Grace Clinton, who is on loan at Tottenham this season, and teammate Millie Turner, who was called up as a late replacement for Arsenal defender Williamson.

Clinton (20 years old) started both matches in midfield and performed brilliantly in her first appearance with a goal against Austria before making another confident display in the victory over Italy.

Turner made her debut as a substitute on Tuesday, four years after her first call-up, while Arsenal defender Lottie Wobin Moi and Manchester City's Jess Park were given rare opportunities to play.

“Milly has trained hard, is very proactive and wants to learn things,” Wegman said of the 27-year-old.

“She is an absolute team player and wants to get better every day. She came in and did well and I think every player who came in did well.”

Asked about the development of Woobin Moi, who has excelled for Arsenal this season and scored in the win over Italy, Wegman added: “I think she has definitely taken a step forward because she is improving a lot.

“This is what we see every week at Arsenal and she shows it[with England] also. “What you see is that the competition for positions is very high.”

In addition to the rotation, and the opportunity to call up several under-23 players for first-team training over the week in Spain, Wegman was particularly pleased with the improvements made to set-pieces in England, which they have placed a bit more emphasis on. on me”.

Manchester City striker Lauren Hemp, who scored two goals against Italy, admitted that it was an area the team worked hard on all week and it clearly paid off.

Both of Hemp's goals came from set-pieces, while Wobin Moi scored a header from a corner kick in the first minute.

“A lot of the goals came from set-pieces, which is something we worked hard on,” Hemp told ITV Sport.

“It's been massive. It's something we can be better at. We've got a lot of tall guys in this team who we can create more chances out of and that's something we've worked hard on this week.”

“I'm sure our set-piece coach will be excited about this goal. I'm happy to contribute even though I didn't know much about the first goal.” [which ricocheted off Italy defender Aurora Galli]”.