The last time England met Germany, the Lionesses were making history at Wembley by winning the European Championship. Their captain, Leah Williamson, says she will never tire of talking about that day. The English game will never forget it. More than 800 days later, though, Friday’s reunion with Europe’s most successful women’s football nation is a new chance for England to flex their muscles before next summer’s defence of their title.
Since that euphoric day on 31 July 2022, England have reached a World Cup final, disappointingly missed out on qualifying for the Olympics on behalf of Team GB and recovered strongly to qualify automatically for Euro 2025 three months ago. For Germany, the highs and lows have been far more dramatic. They crashed out of the World Cup in the group stages but performed admirably to claim an Olympic bronze medal, and they arrive back at Wembley for their first game under the former Germany youth-team coach Christian Wück.
“It’s a totally different Germany team and we are a different team because we’ve moved on too,” the England head coach, Sarina Wiegman, said. “It is the start of [preparing for] the next Euros next summer. We just know where we want to get to in July. The first start of that is tomorrow evening.”
The Lionesses will be without the Brighton forward Fran Kirby, the Arsenal defender Lotte Wubben-Moy, who is going through concussion protocols, and a longer-term absentee in Lauren James, who is out for about six weeks. A crowd of about 50,000-55,000 is expected, down significantly on the 87,192 at 2022’s final. But Wiegman and Williamson played down any concerns of a drop-off in support. “I don’t see it as a real negative,” Wiegman said. “It’s really positive that over the next two windows we play at Wembley twice, with over 100,000 fans coming to the stadium. Yes, of course, Wembley can have more people there. But we’re thinking big.”
For Williamson, the international break appears to have come at a welcome time, a week after Jonas Eidevall resigned as Arsenal’s head coach. Speaking about her club’s situation, Williamson said: “I’m happy to be here in a different environment. I think sometimes that comes at the right time.” The centre-back seemed far more relaxed discussing the Lionesses, praising the winger Lauren Hemp’s form and embracing the competition for places.
The past week has also brought widespread discussion about whether England managers should be English, a conversation that often appeared to forget that the Lionesses have been coached to a trophy by a Dutchwoman. Williamson said: “You can’t pick and choose when it suits us [to have a foreign coach], just based on the result. We’ve had great times with Sarina, I think she’s an honorary Brit now anyway. I know that we’ve all been very happy with Sarina.”
Wiegman, who next summer will try to win the Euros for the third time in a row as a coach, praised her new men’s team counterpart, Thomas Tuchel, saying: “He’s very committed and he’s shown how good a coach he is, and I hope he will bring success for England.”
The head coach’s immediate focus is on another German: Wück. “Germany has always been a powerful team, very physical and one that wants to play a possession game but doesn’t hesitate to play long balls either, so we have to prepare for that,” she said. “They have a new coach now, so they will probably do some other things too and that’s a challenge for us and a nice challenge. We don’t know exactly what they will do, but we’re prepared for everything.”
The draw for the Euros will be conducted on 16 December in Lausanne, Switzerland. The organisers, Uefa, announced on Thursday that ticket holders will be given free second-class travel on public transport on matchdays “between any Swiss locality and the match venue”.
