Katie Smith
π€ SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
on the Football Daily Podcast.
Listen on BBC Sounds.
So England have failed to take the chance to qualify for next summer's Women's World Cup, losing 4-0 to Spain in Mallorca.
I'm Katie Smith.
Alongside me, former England midfielder Frank Kirby, our commentator Vicky Sparks.
And Vicky, let's just lay out firstly, before we dive into that disappointing performance and what went wrong for England, let's lay out the situation now in terms of qualification as it stands after that game's been played.
Yeah, so Spain, with that 4-0 victory, they came into this game knowing that they had to win by two or more goals to really put themselves in the driving seat for World Cup qualification.
So they are now top of the group.
They're level on points with England, but they're ahead on head-to-head.
So it does go down to the final qualifiers.
England are at home to Ukraine.
That's on Tuesday night, live on Five Live, 8 o'clock from Everton's Hill, Dickinson Stadium.
That is a game that England will expect to win.
Spain are away to Iceland now apart from facing England in this group for Spain that is Spain's trickiest qualifier but if England if Spain sorry I should say if Spain match England's results in terms of winning if England win drawing if England draw losing if England lose Spain will be going through automatically as group winners and England will be heading into the playoffs as reigning European champions for next summer's World Cup
That was such a disappointing display, Fran, in so many aspects for England.
It's the most one-sided iteration we've had of this ever-growing rivalry so far.
Never been more than a one-goal margin previously.
Why was it so one-sided in terms of quality today?
And I imagine from your perspective then, Fran, frustrating at times to watch, say, in the first half especially, those risky decisions being made out the back, passing around the area as opposed to getting some long balls up there.
When, yes, England are not there to get a draw, they made that clear before the game began, but they still had a lot to play for if they were to draw or win.