England versus Germany: Sarina Wiegman causes a headache at Wembley Stadium

The showdown between two of Europe's biggest football nations may be an indication of where the Lionesses need to improve before the summer.

Things haven't gone quite as smoothly since their European Championship success, with disappointment in the Women's Nations League and missing out on Olympic qualification.

However, they reached the final of the 2023 Women's World Cup and won the first women's finalissima a few months earlier.

But criticism of England's performance, which has declined since its peak in 2022, is growing.

“We always want that [progress] faster, but I think the game has increased, the level of leagues in international football has increased and evolved,” Wiegman said.

“That's what we want, so we have to evolve. There is competition in the team, other players are coming in and more experienced players have to help the younger players so we are all on the same page.”

“We just know where we want to be in July.”

Germany is under new management by Christian Wuck, who took over the squad after reaching the semi-finals of the Olympic Games in Paris.

He said “both nations have developed well” since the Euro 2022 final and “benefited” from the progress of their domestic leagues.

“Germany have always been a strong team, very physical and a team that wants to play possession but is not afraid to play long balls,” added England coach Wiegman.

“They’ve got a new coach now so they’ll probably do some different things too and that’s a challenge for us – a nice challenge.”

“We don't know exactly what they will do, but we are prepared for anything. It’s really good for us to have this experience at the highest level.”