The Lionesses travel to Dublin on Tuesday evening, as the English side gear up to face the Republic of Ireland under the lights of AVIVA Stadium. Returning off of the back of a Wembley Stadium stalemate on Friday evening against Sweden, the Lionesses will be looking to scrape their first three points of the EURO Qualifying stages.

England manager, Sarina Wiegman, spoke to the press on Monday morning, previewing the upcoming clash in Dublin.

First providing a fitness update for her side travelling to Dublin, Wiegman confirmed that “Everyone is good, everyone will be on the pitch this morning [in training]. Recovered well from last Friday’s game, so one more training session to go, and then we are ready for tomorrow.”

Digesting Friday’s 1-1 stalemate with Sweden at Wembley Stadium, Wiegman reflected on the performance put on by her England side. Speaking “Sweden tactically challenged us, we were struggling a little bit in possession and out of possession. When we did have momentum, I think we had some good moments.

Also [I] brought in some players that had a good impact on the game. That shows that as a team, we are strong. Taking that, tomorrow is going to be a very different game, with a very different opponent, so we’ll do some different things.”

Over the recent seasons of success, Keira Walsh has proved a key pillar in the dominance of the Lionesses as they continued to flex their muscles. Providing structure and creativity inside the centre third, her presence has come to the attention of many opponents, who now have been seen making the conscious effort to mark her directly out of play. Speaking on Walsh, Wiegman insisted “you don’t want to be dependant on one player.”

Continuing on “She’s been marked very well in different games, and moving forward too. So, we expect that too, and we tried to find solutions against Sweden- sometimes that worked, sometimes we struggled a little with that. Tomorrow again, when that happens, we’ll find a way.

We have ten other players on the pitch who can receive the ball- and what you want to do is play forward, get behind the defence, and create chances to score goals. Yes, Keira is an important player to get on the ball and pass, but there are more players that can pass the ball.”

England’s Tuesday opponents in Republic of Ireland are not to be underestimated amongst the waves of a very tough group. The Girls in Green made their intentions clear in Friday’s narrow defeat to France- they are not going to roll over.

Speaking on Eileen Gleeson’s side, Wiegman expressed “Of course they were promoted to this group. Don’t ever underestimate anyone, especially not Ireland. They’ve had a 1-0 result against France, I think that was really good. What we expect [is], they are a physical team, they are very well organised, so they can pLay the counterattack.”

A loss on the road could place the Lionesses in a precarious position as the international window comes to a close, while a victory will see them climb their tally to four points in the group standings. Speaking on whether she views the clash with the Irish as a ‘must-win’, Wiegman confirmed that ‘I don’t want to talk about must.’

The Lionesses boss continued “We really want to win this game, and if we win this game it puts us in a better position. We know in this group it’s hard to predict where it goes to, so you just go out there in the next game and try to win it, and play your best game.

That’s what we are going to do tomorrow, and yes we know if the result is good it puts us in a better position. If the result is not good, it puts us in a harder position. But then still, there are four opportunities to change that around.”

Wiegman confirmed that Leah Williamson will make her return to the Lionesses side after 369 days away from the pitch wearing the Three Lions Crest. Speaking on what the defender brings to the side, Wiegman packed on the praise for the England captain.

“I think what Leah brings, is of course vision. In possession she’s just very bright, and finds the right pass. The flexibility in defence, being able to defend the space behind her together with everyone else, because the defending doesn’t just start with one player, it starts with the whole team. That’s what I’m hoping Leah will bring to the team tomorrow.”

The Lionesses will face Republic of Ireland tomorrow evening under the lights of Dublin’s AVIVA Stadium, as proceedings for the second group-stage leg of the EURO qualifiers head underway at 19:30 BST.