Keep Wieg on!

SARINA: FANS MUST STAY CALM

- TOM BLOW

SARINA WIEGMAN admits England are one of the favourites for next year’s World Cup after securing qualification – but is urging fans not to get carried away.

The Lionesses booked their spot at the tournament in Australia and New Zealand after beating Austria 2-0 last night.

“England has always been seen as one of the best countries worldwide at the top level,” said Wiegman.

“We know that’s the case but we’re just trying to do the things that we have to do – play football and try to become better every day.”

England reached the World Cup after winning all nine of their qualifiers so far – scoring 70 goals and conceding none.

Wiegman added: “I’m happy that we qualified today. We had a great qualification series.”

The reigning European champions were expected to win here after going 20 games unbeaten under the Dutch coach but this was never going to be a gimme. Austria lost by just a single goal to England in each of their previous two meetings and the visitors would have been forgiven for feeling the nerves as they looked for the draw that would book their plane tickets Down Under.