England vs South Africa LIVE: Result and reaction as Lionesses clinch narrow win

This will be England’s third ever meeting with South Africa after 6-0 and 1-0 wins under Hope Powell in the 2009 and 2010 Cyprus Cup respectively.

Can they make it three from three in Coventry?

Sarina Wiegman says the expectations on England are ‘really high’ and that to meet them her team needs to constantly improve.

She said: “We are so visible and expectations are really high. We have to deal with that and we are in in our environment every day, we know what we want to do and how we want to do it.

“We need to analyse what went well, what we need to improve, and that’s what we do every day. There might be criticism from the outside, and that’s alright, but I think sometimes the criticism is too much on the result.

“We need the bigger picture. We work out where we are at overall.”

Georgia Stanway did the pre-match media duties alongside her coach yesterday and also addressed the result against Germany last Friday.

She said: “Germany are a top side. They were difficult to prepare for because they could throw anything at us. We didn’t know their shape or formation because they have a new coach and after 30 minutes we found our feet.

“On the whole it’s a massive learning opportunity and I feel like we helped them by giving the ball away. That affects our defensive shape so we can’t start the game by taking too many risks.”

Sarina Wiegman promised changes and she has made eight of them from the team that line-up against Germany. Only Leah Williamson, Georgia Stanway and Beth Mead keep their places from that match.

In comes Mary Earps replacing Hannah Hampton in goal.

Maya Le Tissier, Alex Greenwood and Esme Morgan join the back line ahead of Lucy Bronze, Millie Bright and Jess Carter while in midfield Jess Park and Grace Clinton take the places of Keira Walsh and Ella Toone.

In the forward line, Alessia Russo and Lauren Hemp drop out with Jessica Naz and Chloe Kelly starting.

England XI: England XI: Earps; Le Tissier, Williamson, Greenwood, Morgan; Stanway, Clinton, Park; Mead, Naz, Kelly

“We gave the ball away too often and that resulted in too many turnovers,” said the Lionesses’ coach Sarina Wiegman when assessing her team’s performance against Germany.

Speaking at a pre-match press conference yesterday she added: “The trigger moments in our press also need to be worked on. We have four friendly games this year, we got lots of information from the first one and we will go out to try and win again tomorrow.

“You will see some changes to the team tomorrow.”

At her pre-match press conference Sarina Wiegman explained what she is expecting from tonight’s encounter with South Africa.

She said: “We are expecting a very physical team, athletic team. They are unpredictable and have a lot of speed. We wanted to have different styles of play against us and we are later on our journey so can we play our game and stay out of those duels?

“Looking at the bigger picture, we are playing better opponents in the Nations League and in these matches so, while we don’t want to concede goals, it can happen.

“We have to question how we’re keeping the ball, how we’re pressing, and make sure we get our tactics right.”

Perhaps the only positive for England is there can be no avoiding the reality now. For the Lionesses, there was no repeat of their glorious victory over Germany at Wembley. Instead, a rematch of the Euro 2022 final served up a warning ahead of England’s European Championship defence next summer.

The Lionesses were complacent and error-strewn as a refreshed, reshaped Germany team repeatedly tore through them. Had it not been for Germany’s own calamitous defending, the scoreline could have been even more of an embarrassment.

England conceding four at home should be enough as it is. That this was a friendly does not hide the fact it was a bad night for Sarina Wiegman, her worst as England manager, but there is an argument that a wake-up call like this was needed ahead of Euro 2025. If the manager has been accused of being too loyal to too many of her players who won the Euros and reached the World Cup final, there is an even greater case to finally change her first-choice team. Wiegman insisted she would not “make changes for the sake of it” – but there are too many starting for England who are living off their reputations, at least on current form.

“I think this is a great opportunity to play South Africa, it’ll be another learning moment for us, and how we can approach that,” Sarina Wiegman said.

“You will see different faces tomorrow. You will see changes, that’s what we said, we want to try out things, we want the players to see connections and so many games coming after the camp.”

Earps; Le Tissier, Wubben-Moy, Greenwood, Carter; Stanway, Clinton, Park; Beever-Jones, Russo, Hemp