Sarina Wiegman has guided England to back-to-back European titles
ByEmma SandersBBC Sport women’s football news reporter- Published20 minutes ago
Sarina Wiegman says her "hurt" England side need setbacks like their humbling defeat by Spain in order to improve.
The Lionesses missed a chance to automatically qualify for the 2027 Women's World Cup with a poor 4-0 defeat in Majorca on Friday.
They must hope world champions Spain drop points against Iceland on Tuesday to avoid going into the play-offs, which will be played this autumn.
England, who take on Ukraine at the same time (20:00 BST) at Hill Dickinson Stadium, will need to better Spain's result to finish top of their group.
"You don't want these moments, but at some point you need some setbacks to get even more urgency to improve and to do better now, when you have the time to do that," Wiegman told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"We had these moments before Euro 2025 too, when we had friendlies and we tried out things. It gave us a big setback, and we thought 'OK, what can we do better?'
"We have a year to work on that. But the first thing is now we have to play Ukraine. We want to win that game.
"We want to give a great performance and show as individuals, and as a team, how good we are. After that, we'll see what our next challenge is in October."
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'We can come back from defeat'
Spain were far superior to England on Friday despite the Lionesses winning 1-0 in the reverse fixture at Wembley in April.
That had put Wiegman's team in the driving seat and anything other than defeat on Friday would have secured their place at next year's World Cup, but now Spain have the edge in their head-to-head record and it is out of England's hands.
With only the top team in the group securing automatic qualification, one of the European champions or reigning world champions were always going to miss out.
Wiegman said a member of her staff is at Spain's game to keep tabs on the scoreline but they will not share that information with players, who are chasing a win over Ukraine regardless.
The Dutchwoman said she will make "some changes" to the side who faced Spain, with all 24 players training at Melwood on Monday afternoon.
"Of course it doesn't feel nice and it should be like that because this is not what we wanted. There was disappointment and there was hurt," Wiegman added.
"We're a competitive team. We want to win. We were really disappointed - it's a big setback. At the same time, we had a day of disappointment and then we move on.
"That's how it works. We stick together. We want a good performance and to show we're England and that we can come back from those moments."
It's not time to panic - Hemp
Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption,Lauren Hemp helped Manchester City win the WSL and FA Cup this season
England forward Lauren Hemp said sleeping on Friday evening was "very hard" as they came to terms with their disappointing performance.
With just a year until the World Cup starts, the gulf in quality between the two teams was concerning.
The two nations have locked horns in the past three major tournaments and developed a respectful and competitive rivalry during Wiegman's reign.
England came out on top in the Euro 2025 final, having beaten Spain in the quarter-finals in 2022, while their rivals were victorious in the 2023 World Cup showpiece.
Hemp insists England are capable of competing with any team and says it is "not time to panic" as they prepare to face Ukraine in their final qualifying match.
"It wasn't a great performance from us. We know every individual is better than what we showed the other day," Hemp told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"It's not time to panic as we know we can perform at higher levels. We proved that only a month ago. It's important we keep showing up. There are no excuses.
"We need to put on a performance that our fans deserve and that they deserved the other night and we weren't able to show.
"We will go out there with a great mentality. We know how to bounce back from that. The performance will be just as important as the result."