By Robert Wheeler
- Spain’s 1-0 victory over Denmark sends them through to the quarter-finals
- Lionesses manager Sarina Wiegman is a doubt due to COVID
- The quarter-final is next Wednesday kick-off at 20:00 BST
BRIGHTON, UK – England will face Spain at the Amex Stadium as they look to reach the semi-finals for the fourth time.
England will play Spain in the quarter-finals of Euro 2020. The Spanish side beat Denmark 1-0 thanks to a goal from Marta Cardona to book their place in the knockout stages.
Spain may be without their injured star player Alexia Putellas but their intricate passing could cause problems for England. Jorge Vilda‘s side beat Finland 4-1 in their opening game of the group. This followed a 2-0 defeat to Germany who topped the group before their match with Denmark.
England qualified for the knockout stages with a perfect group stage record with three wins from three games. They scored 14 goals without conceding a single goal.
A reason to be fearful for England is that Sarina Wiegman may not be on the touchline on Wednesday night due to testing positive for COVID. The Lionesses manager needs two negative tests to return with the squad.
Wiegman’s absence will no doubt affect the preparations for the squad as she will not be able to be there on the training ground. However, as we have all dealt with finding other ways to work over the last few years the manager’s messages will still be being got across to the squad. Assistant manager Arjan Veurink did a good job filling in for Wiegman for Northern Ireland game and is known for doing a lot of work during training sessions.
The Lionesses are expected to be unchanged as Wiegman likes to keep the squad consistent. Although there are calls for Alessia Russo to start ahead of Ellen White after her two goals and the impact she made against Northern Ireland on Friday night.
Beth Mead has been England’s stand-out player of the tournament so far with five goals and two assists. Expectations will be high on the Arsenal forward to deliver as England embark on the knockout stages. However, it will not be all down to Mead to get the goals as Fran Kirby has also been on form scoring once and providing three assists. Russo has also scored 3 times and White has two goals so far.
Former England goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis speaking on the BBC looked ahead to the quarter-final clash.
“Before the game if you’d have asked which team England would rather have played it would rather have been Denmark. Spain have that air of unpredictability about them, they can produce goals and they have individual brilliance.
“But I think England have got enough.”
The match will be on Wednesday 20 July at the Amex Stadium kick off at 20:00 BST.
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