England need to be more 'ruthless' after failing to qualify directly for next year's FIFA Women's World Cup
Published 09/06/2026 at 23:07 GMT+1
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England beat Ukraine 3-0 in their final World Cup qualifying group game at Hill Dickinson Stadium but it was not enough to overhaul Spain for direct qualification.
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Instead, The Lionesses will head into the play-offs in autumn against a side from League C after finishing runners-up behind Spain in their group.
Spain beat Iceland 6-1 to guarantee their direct qualification to next year’s tournament, England paying the price for their 4-0 defeat to the current World Cup champions last Friday.
But they at least finished on a high, comfortably beating Ukraine courtesy of goals from Jess Carter, Georgia Stanway and Beth Mead.
Afterwards, Stanway admitted to ”mixed feelings” after the Lionesses failed to automatically qualify despite winning five of their six games.
”To be honest it is very rare you get 15 points and still don’t make it out of the group,” she told ITV after the match.
”It shows our level, our consistency, we know our performance away wasn’t good enough, but we needed a reaction and I think we got that.
”If anything, tonight we can be disappointed we didn’t score more goals - we created a lot of chances, we dominated the ball. We need to be more ruthless, 3-0 wasn’t enough.”
Carter opened the scoring for England after just 14 minutes, Lauren James showing plenty of skill to work the ball into the box before delivering an inch-perfect cross.
Stanway added a second before Beth Mead scored an exceptional free kick from just outside the box, out-foxing the keeper to steer one low into the bottom corner.
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”I have loved playing for England over the years and scoring goals, as you can tell, it is like scoring the first one every time, it was nice to get on the score sheet,” Mead said, before reiterating England’s disappointment with not qualifying directly.
”Obviously, it’s frustrating, there aren’t many teams that aren’t qualifying on 15 points.
"It is the nature of the competition at the moment, and when you are in a group with Spain, unfortunately, we finished second and we go to the play-offs but we stay motivated to qualify [via] that route instead.”
Wiegman hoping for lots of selection ‘headaches’
Sarina Wiegman remained positive despite her side not qualifying directly for the World Cup, having finished runners-up to Spain last time out in 2023.
”I’m happy with how we showed up, how we played the game against a very defensive Ukraine and of course we wanted to respond, after Spain we were all really, really disappointed.
”We also knew we had another game to play, we had to stick together and that’s what we did today.”
Wiegman said that selection ”headaches” are upcoming though, with a year left for players to earn a slot in the World Cup team - assuming England do make it through their qualifiers.
”There are still some players that are improving, they have a year to get more competition in, and that is exciting and then you can finalise things.
”[Laura Blindkilde Brown] has had a great season and to be honest, she was one of the best players on the pitch today, her positioning was really good.
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Laura Blindkilde Brown of England reacts during the FIFA Women's World Cup 2027 Qualifier match between England and Ukraine
Image credit: Getty Images
”I don’t have an answer yet [for the No. 10 shirt]... I have to figure out what is best at what moment. Many options, the players, they can show themselves the whole of next year.
”So, let’s first qualify, then I hope we get a lot of headaches to make these decisions.”
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