Sarina Wiegman explains how Lionesses are coping with Swiss heat before Euros opener

England take on France in the first game of their European Championships title defence and the Lionesses have been training in extreme heat at their base in Switzerland

Sarina Wiegman says the heatwave in England helped her Lionesses squad prepare for the harsh heat in Switzerland ahead of their Euros opener. Temperatures have topped 30 degrees in Zurich as England get ready to begin their title defence in the city on Saturday.

“We could already practise it in the first week of our training camp because in England it was really hot too,” Wiegman said, explaining the players have been attempting to lower their body temperature with cold vests, ice baths and even iced drinks similar to Slush Puppies. “We have ice cold towels at the rest moment in the training sessions ,they get the towels if they want to,” Wiegman added.

“So we make sure we are hydrated. Take another rest, don’t go in and out all the time, for recovery, and do those things to keep your body temperature low.”

England beat Jamaica 7-0 in Leicester in their final warm-up game, using all six permitted substitutes, but Wiegman is confident she won’t need to make extra allowances for the heat once the first match rolls around. She also noted that – with games kicking off at 9pm and 6pm local time, ithings won’t be as warm during the games as in their training sessions earlier in the day.

“When we sub we do it because it’s necessary to change the game or to sub someone who gave everything that needs to go out, I will not think of managing the heat at that point,” Wiegman added. “After that game, we recover and then we come together as a team with the medical, technical, how does everyone come out of this game and then we move forward to the next game against the Netherlands”

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England take on France in their first match, at 8pm UK time or 9pm Swiss time on Saturday. The Netherlands game, in the same city four days later, will be the only group game with the earlier kick-off time.

France and England met twice in qualifying, each recording a 2-1 victory. Georgia Stanway and Alessia Russo scored the goals when the Lionesses won in Saint-Etienne in June.

On Sunday, England defender Jess Carter said the team was grateful for the test against Jamaica, despite the large margin of victory. The Reggae Girlz saw a goal disallowed at 1-1 after a VAR check, and Carter put in an important last-ditch challenge of her own before later chipping in with an assist at the other end.

“It was really important, [to have challenging moments] and it’s why we wanted to play them, because we thought they would test us. We couldn’t be complacent,” the left-back said.

“We had to try to be clinical in front of goal and we saw they could really test us at the other end. I feel we got fortunate with the goal we conceded that got cancelled because of VAR, and I think it goes to show that we can’t switch off for any moment.”

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