Sarina Wiegman insisted England are "not here to answer critics" ahead of their Nations League clash with Spain at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday. 

Wiegman came under criticism as the Lionesses laboured to a 1-1 draw in their opening game of the tournament against Portugal, having dominated the first half. 

England have now won just two of their last six games in all competitions, with the European champions approaching this year's title defence in Switzerland in worrying form.

But ahead of facing Spain, in what is a repeat of the 2023 World Cup final, Wiegman said that she is not planning to go out and silence the critics with a win over La Roja. 

"We are not playing football to beat the critics. We are playing football to win games," Wiegman said.  

"We will try to be at our best again tomorrow and be connected as a team. What we want to do is get more consistency so we create momentum in the game and keep it longer.

"That is what we have experienced over the last couple of games. Then we move forward.

"Sometimes things go really well, sometimes things don't go that well. We try and stay very neutral and say 'this is where we are right now'."

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— Lionesses (@Lionesses) February 24, 2025

Alessia Russo was one of those players involved in their 1-0 defeat to Spain in the World Cup two years ago. 

Russo was replaced by Lauren James at half-time of the final, and finished as England's joint-top scorer in the tournament (three, level with James and Lauren Hemp). 

But when asked if their latest encounter with Spain was about revenge for their defeat at the World Cup, Russo was keen to keep that loss firmly in the past. 

"I think for me revenge reflects on the past a little bit, we're a new team. We have lots of new faces and lots of new qualities within the squad now," Russo said. 

"We don't want to be looking back. Obviously it hurt. You can ask every player who was in that game. It wasn't nice to lose out, but we want to move forward.

"We have got a new opportunity, we're back at Wembley, we have got all of our fans there. We're really looking forward to that."