England did nearly all the pieces proper of their qualifying group, successful 5 of their six matches, together with the victory over Spain at Wembley in April.
In addition they scored 13 objectives, conceded simply 5 – 4 of which got here towards Spain – and stored 4 clear sheets.
However it’s not simple to qualify robotically and England got a tough draw with world champions Spain of their group. The search for high spot was at all times prone to come right down to their head-to-head file.
That’s what occurred as England in the end missed out as a result of they had been thumped in Majorca.
That humbling defeat – which confirmed the gulf between the 2 groups when Spain are at their greatest – was their downfall.
Wiegman opted for expertise within the beginning XI towards Spain. Regardless of not that includes for England since October, and solely coming back from a four-month damage in April, midfielder Ella Toone was given the nod over Lucia Kendall and Laura Blindkilde Brown.
Chelsea’s Lucy Bronze began at right-back regardless of an damage within the build-up to the sport.
Ultimately, England’s midfielders had been too passive and simply managed by Spain, whereas the often explosive frontline of Alessia Russo, Lauren Hemp and Lauren James proved ineffective.
On the again, England struggled to dwell with Spain’s creativity and dynamism, with solely Esme Morgan impressing in a usually dismal efficiency.
England’s sloppiness was compounded by the actual fact Spain produced considered one of their greatest performances up to now and Wiegman couldn’t give you a solution for it.
Wiegman advised BBC Radio 5 Dwell this week that she is “completely satisfied” England can match Spain at their greatest if they’re to fulfill once more subsequent 12 months.
However that one essential defeat confirmed simply how troublesome it’s for England to qualify for main tournaments and why they can not afford an ‘off day’ towards the perfect groups.
“We have now blended emotions, in fact. We had been very disillusioned with the best way the sport went [against Spain],” mentioned midfielder Georgia Stanway, a scorer on Tuesday together with Jess Carter and Beth Mead.
“It is very uncommon that you just get 15 factors and nonetheless not make it out of the group. I believe that it exhibits our degree, our consistency, however we all know our efficiency wasn’t ok towards Spain.”
Wiegman mentioned it was a “good factor” that there’s extra competitors all through Europe however admitted it was powerful to overlook out on such effective margins.
“The Nations League introduced extra competitors in Europe. I believe that is very nice. We additionally observed now we have to play Spain so many occasions,” she mentioned.
“I used to be excited for this group to play Iceland as we hadn’t performed them. It is one thing for Uefa to take a look at, no less than. The nice factor is there’s a whole lot of competitors.”
