England 3 Ukraine 0
If the Lionesses want to win the World Cup in just over a year, they have work to do.
Firstly, they still have to qualify. Their comfortable victory over Ukraine was not enough to book their place at next summer’s tournament because Spain won against Iceland, which saw them finish top of the group.
It is a bizarre situation that England and Spain, the two finalists from the 2023 World Cup, were battling for one automatic qualification spot. Because the Nations League serves as qualifying for major tournaments, only four automatic qualification places were available, with seven play-off spots up for grabs.
England will have to qualify the hard way by coming through two sets of two-legged play-offs later this year. There is still every chance they will do that, given the lower-ranked opposition they are likely to face. But it is frustrating for England manager Sarina Wiegman that her side won five of their six games and have not qualified.
“It’s not good to finish second [in the group],” Wiegman said. “The competition in Europe is really high.
“I’m a bit disappointed that we won five games, we have 15 points, we are the European champions in the group with the world champions and then we can’t qualify. I’m not really happy, I’m happy with the performance, but not the result because we go into the play-offs.
“I’m very positive that we’re going to qualify anyway.”
The most important aspect of Tuesday’s game was responding to a brutal humiliation by Spain three days earlier. Their 4-0 defeat in Mallorca was the worst result and performance of Wiegman’s reign to date and she had called for a reaction.
England were better, but not outstanding. Ukraine are 30 places below them in Fifa’s rankings and finished this qualifying campaign with six defeats from six games. These are the types of games where you want the Lionesses to be ruthless. They should be fun and exciting to watch. There were times when this game felt like an exhibition match, with England doing enough to win comfortably without fully exerting themselves.
“I think we should and could have scored more goals than we did but I think overall we showed who we are,” Wiegman said.
Wiegman made four changes to the team that was thrashed 4-0 by Spain on Friday, with Maya Le Tissier, Jess Carter, Niamh Charles and Laura Blindkilde Brown coming in for Lucy Bronze, Lotte Wubben-Moy, Alex Greenwood and Ella Toone.
The manager clearly saw the benefit in rotating against a weaker opponent but it seemed strange that she opted to leave Freya Godfrey out of her 23-player match-day squad. Wiegman had named a squad of 24, meaning one player would not make the bench. On Friday, it was Chelsea striker Aggie Beever-Jones – an equally puzzling decision given England could have done with another attacking option. Godfrey was the only uncapped player in the squad and this had felt like the perfect opportunity to give her some experience.
Given England had beaten Ukraine 6-1 in the reverse fixture, they were always likely to win comfortably here. They opened the scoring after 13 minutes when Lauren James crossed for Carter, who headed home at the back-post.
Their second goal was a more polished team move. Keira Walsh played a lovely through ball to Alessia Russo, who crossed for Georgia Stanway to tap-in at the back-post.
Wiegman made changes at half-time, with Beth Mead and Greenwood replacing Esme Morgan and James. Mead scored England’s third goal with a curling free-kick.
The Lionesses could and should have scored more. Spain no doubt would have. They managed six goals against Iceland while the Lionesses could only score one when they played in Reykjavik two months ago. That is currently the difference between the two teams. Spain are ruthless, the Lionesses are not.
England will find out who their play-off opponents are when the draw is made on June 18 and they will face one of Lithuania, Kosovo, Hungary, Greece, Romania, Belarus, Croatia or Kazakhstan in the first round. The second round would see them face a slightly tougher opponent. The road to Brazil has not been straightforward, and the Lionesses still have work to do.
Sarina Wiegman speaks to ITV Sport
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I’m happy how we showed up, how we played against a very defensive Ukraine. And we wanted to respond after Spain where everyone was disappointed.
We also know we had another game to play and had to stick together. That’s what we did today.
We’ve seen good things and some things we have to improve. We have a year to be ready. On Friday some things were exploited. We have been trying some things out with players in different positions. We have many midfielders now and have a year to see what’s best for us.
There are also players who are improving and they have a year [more] to finalise things.
This game really fits [Blindkilde Brown]. She did really well. I’m really happy with her performance.
I don’t have the answer yet [on who is her favoured No 10]. The players can chill for a year. First let us qualify and then we have [good] headaches and can make these decisions.
Cagey
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Neither Georgia Stanway, who is leaving Bayern Munich, nor Beath Mead, who is leaving Arsenal, are willing to enlighten ITV Sport when asked about their next clubs. The body language suggests they know but aren’t saying yet.
Georgia Stanways speaks to ITV Sport
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Mixed feelings. We are disappointed with the way game but it is rare you get 15 points and don’t get out of the group. We needed a reaction today and I think we got that. We can be disappointed that we did not score more today, we need to be more ruthless. Three-nil was not enough.
The four automatic qualifiers for the World Cup from Europe
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Denmark, France, Spain and Germany. The rest will be determined by the play-offs.
England will play one of Hungary, Greece, Romania, Belarus, Kosovo, Lithuania, Croatia or Kazakhstan in the first round and, should they win, one of Slovenia, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Switzerland, Portugal, Scotland, Wales, Finland, Belgium, Turkey, Czech Republic, Albania, Northern Ireland, Slovakia or Israel in the final round.
The draw takes place on June 18 and the matches will take place between Oct 7-13 while the second round of games will be played between Nov 26 and Dec 5.
Full time: England 3 Ukraine 0
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England go into the play-offs for qualification for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.
90+2 min: England 3 Ukraine 0
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Some penalty box pinball with Kelly and Russo firing shots from close range into a thicket of legs that, including the English ones, protect the goal.
90 min: England 3 Ukraine 0
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Kendall is caught late by Moldyuk and she becomes the first player in the referee’s book.
Two minutes of stoppage time to come.
88 min: England 3 Ukraine 0
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Now Mead has a dig from roughly the same position, 20 yards out in the inside left channel. She opts for power rather than swerve but Boklach is up to it, diving to her right to bat it away with two firm wrists.
86 min: England 3 Ukraine 0
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Park seizes the opportunity to shoot after tacking in from the left across the 18-yard line and wrapping her right instep around an effort that goes straight down Boklach’s throat.
84 min: England 3 Ukraine 0
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Kelly slips for the third or fourth time since coming on. Savka comes away with the ball but cannot make much headway and England win it back.
82 min: England 3 Ukraine 0
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Walsh, who was poor in Spain, is given a rousing send-off after her much improved performance today. She is replaced by Lucia Kendall. She’s the fifth sub which means we won’t see Aggie Beever-Jones. Bah!
79 min: England 3 Ukraine 0
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Russo gets the better of Shmatko and decides to cross, rather than shoot, and pulls it behind Mead. Russo has another similar opportunity barely 30 seconds later and she does shoot this time but scrapes the ground with her foot before connecting and consequently scuffs the shot tamely.
77 min: England 3 Ukraine 0
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Blindkilde Brown’s header is easy meat for Boklach. Ukraine counter with Hluschenko dribbling down the left but her cross, looking for her fellow sub Podolska, is wayward. She should have had a shot hereself.
75 min: England 3 Ukraine 0
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Shaynyuk turns the ball behind to minimise the risk of Kelly winkling it off her.
73 min: England 3 Ukraine 0
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England glide into the Ukraine box with Kelly and Park to the fore on the right. Park dribbles past Shmatko and passes to Blindkilde Brown who absolutely smashes a short pass at Mead who can’t control it. Shades of Steven Gerrard there with his torpedo short passes.
70 min: England 3 Ukraine 0
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The introduction of Kelly and Park have given England renewed attacking vigour.
Goal!
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England 3 Ukraine 0 (Mead) The free-kick, on the left of the D, is lined up by the left-footed Greenwood and the right-footed Mead. The latter has more of the goal to aim at and hence pulls rank, firing the ball round the wall and unstoppably into the bottom right corner. That’s Mead’s 40th international goal. That makes her joint fifth with Fara Williams. Ellen White, with 52, holds the record.
65 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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Kelly is immediately into the action when found by Park on the right and she fizzes over a cross arrowing for Russo until Olkhova stuck out a leg. Hemp gathers and tries to dribble into the box and has her shirt pulled inches outside the box.
63 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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England pick the lock of the Ukraine defence again with rat-a-tat-tat one-touch passes that manipulate defenders out of position as they try to close the whirling recipients down. Stanway gets in round the back on the right at the end of a 12-pass move but the ball sticks under her feet before she can deliver.
Stanway and Charles depart. On come Kelly and Park.
61 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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The ball sits up nicely for Russo to shoot from 20 yards but she fires it straight at the keeper. Kelly and Park are preparing to come on.
59 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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Carter pings a pass up the right into space for Hemp to chase, She looks to the byline then feints and plays a one-two inside with Stanway whose return is too strong, tightening the angle, making it easy for Boklah to block the cross at the near post.
World champs Spain are leading Iceland 4-1 in Reykjavik.
57 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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Hemp’s turn to try a left-foot shot, this one a chip that hovers between a cross and a strike on a goal and ends up as neither.
55 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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Hemp faces up Shaynyuk on the right of the attack and slips a short pass to Blindkilde Brown who shifts it on to Stanway.
Stanway opens her body to try to curl a left-foot shot from the right of the D towards the top left but hits the defender who threw herself into the breach to close her down.
52 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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Charles makes a clever run from the left of the box to the right of the penalty spot to meet the corner, a run that had obviously been worked on, but steers her header over the bar. Everything right bar the final execution of the header.
50 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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England free-kick 30 yards out that Greenwood thumps straight into the wall. England regather the ball, work it from left to right and Shanyuk puts it behind for a corner. The other Ukraine departee was Kohut.
48 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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Seems rather conservative of Wiegman to bring on Greenwood and Mead, both of whom she has seen dozens of times. Why not give Fisk and Park a half?
46 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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Two substitutions apiece, Greenwood and Mead replace Morgan and James. For Ukraine Hluschenko and Radionova replace Kunina and AN Other.
Half-time: England 2 Ukraine 0
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Firmly in control. England have been well drilled and have stuck to their task with flashes of flair. But given their slip up on Friday it won’t be enough. Yet, looking forward there have been positive contributions from the irregulars Charles and Blindkilde Brown which may persuade Wiegman, who seems loath to refresh her ZI in key matches, they deserve more chances in bigger games.
45 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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James jinks and beats Kotyk as she drives down the right, employing a drag-back and explosive acceleration but as she leaves her in herw ake and faces up Olkhova, she slips flat on her face. One minute of stoppage time to come.
A second goal for Spain. Think we can safely assume it will be the play-offs for the Lionesses, given Iceland have managed about 12% possession and no successful passes in the final third. They had one job!
44 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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Hemp cuts in from the right wing to the left of the D to take Blindkilde Brown’s pass and she swivels and fires a left-foot rising effort over the bar from 18 yards.
41 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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There’s a foul just outside the box in the aftermath of the corner. James takes from 18.5 yards, looking to curl it over the wall into the top left butalthough she manages to clear the wall, she was too close to impart sufficient dip and the ball skims the top of the net.
39 min: England 2 Ukraine 0
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Crisp and powerful sliding tackle from Savka puts the ball behind for an England corner and wipes out Charles in her followthrough too.
GOAL!
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England 2 Ukraine 0 (Stanway) Sliding tap-in by the right post after Blindkilde Brown played a short pass infield to Walsh who played a cute, reverse pass down the inside left channel into the box for Russo to take in her stride and square to the back stick.
33 min: England 1 Ukraine 0
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Ukraine have done well to get bodies around the ball in the box, thwarting Charles, Blindkilde Brown and Stanway. All three, though, wanted a touch too many. Shooting early seemed the better option.
31 min: England 1 Ukraine 0
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Rare Ukraine foray upfield and a shooting opportunity for Boychuk who scuffs it wide. England should have shut that down earlier but an error from Walsh could have led to an equaliser.
29 min: England 1 Ukraine 0
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Le Tissier and Hemp combine on the right and work a cross over from that flank to the left of penalty spot. Blindkilde Brown goes for the first-time shot but Okhlova slides in to block and the ball rebounds a yard or so to the right to Russo who puts her laces through a half-volley and crashes it over the bar.
26 min: England 1 Ukraine 0
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Hemp cuts in off the right wing, burns past Shaynyuk who barges her at the last moment and sends her careering into the hoardings. The ref awards a goal-kick.
24 min: England 1 Ukraine 0
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Le Tissier blazes over from the right of the box when Charles, a left-back who found herself on the right following a corner, feeds a pass towards the right of the penalty spot. Le Tissier leans back and sweeps it over the bar.
22 min: England 1 Ukraine 0
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Shmatko pulls Russo’s shirt to concede a free-kick 25 yards out. England take it quickly, James chips it to Blindkilde Brown who makes a cute lay-off to Hemp who can’t free her feet to shoot when tightly marked.
19 min: England 1 Ukraine 0
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A foul at the edge of the box from that corner gives England a free-kick which is tapped to Hemp to hammer a left-foot shot that Boklach pushes behind for another corner. Ukraine again fail to prevent the cross coming in but Russo, leaning back and craning her neck, cannot find the right purchase and steers her header over.
16 min: England 1 Ukraine 0
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Walsh scoops a pass over Shmatko for Hemp, who has cut in from the right, to gather in the box and stab a shot from close range that is put behind for another corner, England’s fourth.
GOAL!
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England 1 Ukraine 0 (Carter) Another short corner on the right is played to James who dribbles infield for a couple of yards then stands up a right-foot cross to the back post that Carter heads in. By no means a clean connection, more right temple than brow but enough force to trickle over the line.
Lauren James has looked so lively in the opening stages here and just after she nearly opened the scoring with a long range shot, she’s created the first goal. It was a lovely cross for Jess Carter but a slightly unorthodox header. Ukraine’s keeper had committed herself the other way so she had little chance of saving it. It took England 50 minutes to break down Ukraine away from home before the floodgates then opened. Wiegman will be hoping that goal is the first of many in this match.
12 min: England 0 Ukraine 0
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England have a corner on the right after good work from Stanway driving into the box. Le Tissier takes it short to James who arrows a left-foot cross/shot that clips the underside of the crossbar then canons into the left post and Boklach, inadvertently but effectively smothers it.
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 9, 2026"Never EVER going to do that again in her life" 😅
Kateryna Boklach's lucky save is something else, as she stops England getting ahead against Ukraine pic.twitter.com/OKusoitdHQ
10 min: England 0 Ukraine 0
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James’s free-kick is on the floaty side and headed away by Olkhova. England are looking dangerous down the sides.
8 min: England 0 Ukraine 0
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Spain have gone 1-0 up against Iceland. They were all but nailed on to win. England are playing smoothly with sone incisive passing between halfway and the 18-yard line. The full-backs are pushing high and Le Tissier, 25 yards from goal, is barrelled over to give England a free-kick.
5 min: England 0 Ukraine 0
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Couple of excellent passes from Blindkilde Brown and then Stanway, looking for Charles and then Russo run aground through overhit crosses and a lay-off when a shot was on. A minute earlier Hemp had had a dig from 20 yards but straight at Boklach.
They were expecting a crowd of around 30,000 here - not sure there is quite that many inside the Hill Dickerson but it still looks to be a reasonable crowd. If England could give the supporters inside an early goal to cheer then it would put Spain under a bit of pressure. The Lionesses are relying on Iceland doing them a huge favour over in Reykjavik. It’s not a guarantee that Spain will win there. It’s a difficult pitch to play on and they’ve had a reasonably long journey. So England need to make sure they do their job.
3 min: England 0 Ukraine 0
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Boychuk gets the better of Carter inside the Ukraine half, nipping her toe in to take the ball away before spinning and trying to send Molodyuk off on a run through on goal. Le Tissier is too quick for her, though, and works it back to Hampton.
1 min: England 0 Ukraine 0
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England kick off, attacking from right to left and immediately instigate a thrust up the left wing with James carrying the ball before doubling back and switching it all the way over to the right where Hemp bends a left-foot cross beyond Charles and the back post. Goal-kick for Ukraine.
The teams emerge from the tunnels
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England are in white and blue, Ukraine in all yellow. First, the national anthems.
Sarina Wiegman speaks to ITV Sport
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Every game you don’t win hurts. It’s part of the game, too, but Friday was a hard one because we didn’t create any momentum.
Of course you want to win, when you lose, it becomes more urgent [to win the next one] that’s why it’s an even bigger learning.
There’s a couple of reasons why I made the changes. First tactical because of the way Ukraine play. Some players were knocking on the door and we wanted to keep some freshness and see what some other players can do.
We know what we have to do.We want the win and a great performance. First winning but then we want to entertain the crowd.
Ukraine have lost all five of their qualifiers so far
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And have conceded 16 goals while scoring two. Relegation to Group B of the Nations League has already been confirmed. But what chance do they have when their nation has been under attack for more than three years?
Wasted opportunity
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No Freya Godfrey in the 23-player squad feels like a strange decision. Godfrey is yet to make her debut and this felt like the perfect opportunity for her to get some minutes. Given England are unlikely to be doing much defending, it feels like an overly cautious move.
The other changes to the XI make sense. Maya Le Tissier playing at right back is interesting. Can she stake a claim for being Lucy Bronze’s back up? An opportunity for Laura Blindkilde Brown in midfield too.
Uefa play-off details
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A total of 32 teams take part in the play-offs, which are split into two paths. In Path One the runners-up and third-placed teams from League A are drawn against the group winners and two best-ranked runners-up from League C.
In Path Two the fourth-placed teams from League A and group winners from League B take on the runners-up and third-placed teams from League B.
Sixteen teams will advance from the first round of play-offs, with the winners from Path One drawn against the winners of Path Two. England will be seeded in both rounds so will play the second legs at home.
The first round of fixtures will take place between October 7-13 while the second round of games will be played between November 26 and December 5.
Your teams in black and white
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England Hampton; Le Tissier, Carter, Morgan, Charles; Walsh, Stanway, Blindkilde Brown; Hemp, Russo, James.
Substitutes Moorhouse, Baggaley, Bronze, Toone, Wubben-Moy, Greenwood, Kelly, Kendall, Mead, Park, Beever-Jones, Fisk.
Ukraine Boklach; Savka, Olkhova, Shmatko, Shayniuk; Kotyk, Zaborovets; Molodiuk, Kohut, Kunina; Boychuk.
Substitutes Basanska, Hlushchenko, Holovach, Keliushyk, Khrystiuk, Kotiash, Podolska, Radionova, Samson, Semkiv.
England team news
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Wiegman makes four changes, three in the back four. Out go Bronze, Greenwood, Wubben-Moy and Toone for Le Tissier, Charles, Carter and Blindkilde Brown.
Preview: Rising from the canvas
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Good evening and welcome to live coverage of the Uefa Women’s World Cup qualifier between England and Ukraine from Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium. England’s hopes of automatic qualification all but dissolved into the ether during their 4-0 drubbing by world champions Spain last Friday but the double European champions retain a sliver of hope that Iceland might manage to impede Spain’s victory in Reykjavik this evening and allow England to come up on the rails. Both start on 12 points but Spain have an insurmountable goal-difference supremacy of eight.
Sarina Wiegman’s team beat Ukraine 6-1 in Turkey last March at the start of their campaign and are likely to have to qualify for Brazil 2027 via the play-off paths, two two-legged fixtures, the first set in October against a Group C side and then probably a Group B team which could be a tricky customer like Portugal, Belgium or Scotland. The head coach said Friday’s defeat was like “a hit on the chin” but is confident they will rally as they have always done in the past.
“It’s so important that we stick together,” she said. “At moments when you’re really having a set back like this, then we can really show who we are. The day after we had a review but at the same time we didn’t want to get too drawn into that as we had another one [game] on Tuesday.
“There were multiple cases where we weren’t at our best. It was really disappointing that we couldn’t create any momentum in that game. We looked at ourselves, what individually we could have done better, what as a team we could have done better.
“Of course I always hope [Iceland will win]. Football is unpredictable. Beforehand, everyone will think that Spain will win this game, but we have seen so many unexpected scorelines. Of course I hope for that but at the same time I am fully focusing on our game.
“We will have someone there so we know but we’re not planning on sharing that [the score] with players. We know what we have to do and we have to win this game and that’s what we’re going after. But we want to be updated on what is going on there.”