Women’s World Cup qualifying: Do England lack ruthlessness in front of goal?

England’s lack of ruthlessness in front of goal has been an occurring theme since 2023 when they finished runners-up to Spain in the World Cup.

In that tournament, they came through the group stage unconvincingly, beating lower-ranked opposition Haiti and Denmark, both 1-0.

In the knockout stage, they got past Nigeria via a penalty shootout and had to come from behind to beat Colombia 2-1 in the quarter-finals.

In World Cup qualifying this year, England have performed well but have not won with ease, edging past Iceland and Spain and under-firing against Greece.

They are creating chances though, and had 58 touches in the opposition box against Greece and 210 passes in the final third.

“We played differently back then [in 2023]. There’s a lot more pressure when you’re at the World Cup,” said midfielder Keira Walsh.

“In these [qualifying] games, the worrying thing would be if we were not arriving in the final third. That would be a bigger problem.

“It’s the final pass, final cross and final shot. That was what was missing [on Friday]. I see the girls do that in training every day. They are fantastic at it.

“It’s just putting that in the game tomorrow and hopefully we will.”

Walsh said their hesitancy in front of goal was “frustrating” and they know there is work to do in the second leg.

One player who has stepped up to the challenge is Arsenal midfielder Georgia Stanway, who is England’s top scorer since Euro 2025 with 10 goals.

She ranks inside the top three for most goals scored by European players in internationals and has a minutes-per-goal ratio of 81.

Wiegman hopes others will follow suit and was clear on where she thinks the team can improve when asked about it on Monday.

“We got in good positions but then it’s staying onside, having the final pass, the right pass at the right moment, the run at the right time and deciding what cross, what cutback and whether to go for the far post,” added the Dutchwoman.

“That is also about the connections between the players in those situations and taking out the counter-attack [threat].”