Ukraine vs England live: Latest Lionesses team news and updates from Women’s World Cup qualifier – UK Times

Ukraine have won just one of their last six Women’s World Cup qualifying matches against nations ranked in the current top five of the rankings.

They’ve lost two vs England, lost two vs Spain, and lost one vs Sweden.

But they did beat Sweden 1-0 in June 2018 before ultimately failing to progress out of their qualification group for the 2019 tournament.

England have won all four of their previous meetings with Ukraine in all competitions, with this their first since a 2-1 away win in June 2014 in qualification for the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

England boss Sarina Wiegman has revealed they remain in constant dialogue with the UK Government over the safety of the squad in Turkey.

The Lionesses are in Antalya to face Ukraine in an away World Cup qualifier on Tuesday and are playing at a neutral venue due to the ongoing war in the country of the designated home team.

However, safety concerns have been raised in Turkey due to the close proximity to the conflict in the Middle East between Israel, Iran and United States, which has escalated in recent days.

The Lionesses last outing was in a friendly against Ghana back in December (which they won 2-0).

From that side, Sarina Wiegman has made five changes.

Hannah Hampton replaces Anna Moorhouse in goal while Leah Williamson returns in defence and as captain replacing Lucy Bronze. Maya Le Tissier is expected to play at right-back.

In midfield, Georgia Stanway and Laura Blinkilde Brown slot in for Lucia Kendall and Missy-Bo Kearns while Chloe Kelly and Aggie Beever-Jones are replaced by Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo further forward.

England XI: Hampton; Le Tissier, Williamson, Wubben-Moy, Hinds; Walsh, Stanway, Park; Blindkilde-Brown, Russo, Hemp

Georgia Stanway will be leaving Bayern Munich at the end of the current season and revealed that she hopes to leave with ‘good memories’.

The midfielder explained: “It was really difficult, I’ve absolutely loved my time at Bayern.

“Honestly, it’s been probably one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. From the moment I got there, it felt like home. It was a really difficult decision to tell them that I wasn’t going to be re-signing and that’s because I still love it there.

“I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that I want to always have good memories at Bayern – I never want to get to the point where I’m not enjoying something or I’m a little bit over it.

“I want to continue to fulfil the rest of this season – we’re in a really good place in the league, in the Champions League as well – and I want to try and make as many memories as possible.”

Georgia Stanway was high expectations of her England teammates and wants the Lionesses to qualify for the World Cup ‘as soon as possible’.

“Our main task is to qualify as fast as possible, as soon as possible,” Stanway said.

“We also understand the process that is behind it and we understand what it takes to get to a Euros or get to a World Cup.

“We know that it’s super difficult and we’ve always said that we need focus on ourselves; we need to take each game as it comes; we need to make sure that we’re adapting, evolving and changing our game.

“We know that oppositions are getting better and better, and we need to make sure our environment is as competitive as possible.

“Sarina’s challenging us, pushing us and making sure that we can be adaptable and make changes in moments and try and play the game that we want to play.”

England midfielder Georgia Stanway took the press conference alongside Sarina Wiegman and was also asked for her thoughts on playing in Turkey.

She revealed: “I think we are in a fortunate position. I think sometimes we do take things for granted but it’s times like this that really make you realise the bigger picture.

“Like Sarina said, football is our common goal and we know that everybody’s stepping on that pitch on Tuesday, everybody’s stepping over that white line and nothing else matters apart from the game and that’s the beauty of football is the fact that it brings us together – that deep connection, that deep love for the game and the solidarity.”

A quintet of Euro 2025 winners have returned to the England squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers, while London City Lionesses defender Poppy Pattinson has earned a first senior call-up.

The Lionesses boss added: “They [Ukraine] changed their coach in January, so that will probably give some more challenges but they’re a direct team.

“They have some pace and some players up front that can make a difference – especially from the wings, they can be very dangerous. We want to have the ball a lot and we really want to challenge them.

“We’ll probably force them back a bit and need to be aware of their counter-attacks. That’s mainly what we expect.

“We really want to be tight on the ball and challenge them a lot, give them a lot of question marks how to defend us.”