Sarina Wigman hopes to clarify England plans for the World Cup

Sarina Wigman and Leah Williamson spoke at a joint press conference with Brazil. Credit: PA/Steven Paston

England chief Sarina Wigman says she will cut back on team work to focus on the Women's World Cup this summer. The Lionesses will play Brazil on Thursday night at a sold-out Wembley and then Australia at Brentford on Tuesday. rating trio from South Korea, Italy and Belgium.

England now faces much stiffer resistance in world ninth-ranked Brazil and 10th-ranked Australia, six places behind fourth-placed England. This summer, the Australians will take part with New Zealand in the World Cup, and Brazil will take part in the first-ever Finalissima tournament at Wembley. a match between the European champions and their South American counterparts.

In a rare joint press conference on Wednesday, Sweden's Brazil coach Pia Sundheij called Wigman «the best coach in the world.»

Wigman, when asked how much she would be changing her side in the coming days, replied, «We'll experiment a little less because we have two games and we're [at] a different stage.» But we are also in a period where players have a lot of games and the load on the players is very high, so we are also trying to manage the level. So a little bit of both. First, play tomorrow, and of course we play to win, but you also play to improve. After that, we'll see how the team stacks up and what else we want to see and how everyone exits the game.

«We're getting closer to the World Cup, so we want to get closer to our team selection, but still things that can to happen internationally and in the club [between now and the World Cup]. We expect that [this week] it will be more difficult for us to defend. This again gives us more information about our team and where our players are at the moment."

What is Finalissima?

For Wigman, who has only two matches left before she is expected to name a provisional roster for the World Cup in June, another challenge is to narrow her current roster to 23 players. She named a 25-player squad for the camp, although Manchester City goalkeeper Sandy MacIver was forced to pull out on Wednesday due to an unspecified injury, meaning just 24 players made it to the national stadium.

Predicted England. XI: headphones; Bronze, Williamson, Greenwood, Carter; Stanway, Walsh, Toon; James, Russo, Hemp