England boss Sarina Wiegman hails ‘tremendous’ Lionesses after qualifying for World Cup with perfect record

Sarina Wiegman hailed a “tremendous” performance from her side as England completed a perfect World Cup qualifying campaign with a ten-goal thrashing of Luxembourg.

Georgia Stanway and Beth England each struck twice in the 10-0 win, with Beth Mead, Ella Toone, Rachel Daly, Lauren Hemp, Alessia Russo and Nikita Parris also on the scoresheet.

The Lionesses’ close their Group D campaign with a maximum 30 points from ten games, scoring 80 times without conceding to progress in a commanding manner through to next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

“I don’t think it could be much better than this, so really happy,” said manager Sarina Wiegman. “After the Euros it always seems to be a hard one, but I think the team has done a tremendous job coming out of the summer.

“We played two games like this and we knew tonight we were so much better but we had to keep the tempo in the game and I think that’s what we did in most parts of the game.

“We knew we would win the game so we wanted to try some things out and some players.”

Wiegman selected a stronger-than-anticipated starting side for the encounter with Luxembourg, who finished fourth in the group on nine points.

A predictably one-sided affair saw the visitors fail to register a shot and have less than a fifth of possession.

“It will be a very exciting and loud night,” said Wiegman of the USA game. “We are really looking forward to it being sold out again and that we will play the No. 1 in the rankings to see where we are at. I think we’re in a good place. Those are the tests you want all the time.”

Elsewhere in qualifying action, Wales secured a first-ever place in the play-off round with a draw against Slovenia.

A goalless draw at the Cardiff City Stadium was enough for Gemma Grainger’s side to remain clear of their opponents in second in Group I and ensure that they will be in Friday’s draw.

“I’m so pleased for the players, they deserve everything that they get,” Grainger told BBC Sport Wales.

“It has been an exceptional campaign. We have developed.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the players. The players need to take all the credit, the 12,000 supporters here tonight were behind us and we fed off that.

“Now we want even more. We don’t mind who we get in the draw, we don’t have a preference.”

Grainger’s side are joined in the first round of the play-offs by Scotland, who beat the Faroe Islands 6-0 in their final Group B fixture.

The Republic of Ireland, meanwhile, advance into the second round after being beaten only once in a strong qualifying campaign.

The three first-round matches will be played on 6 October, with the winners of the three single-leg affairs advancing to face Switzerland, Iceland or the Republic of Ireland on 11 October.

Northern Ireland were already confirmed to have missed out on qualification before their final Group D clash with Latvia, but closed with a 3-1 win in Jurmala thanks to three own-goals from their hosts.