Beth Mead admits England’s Euro qualifying group is “not the nicest” but hopes they can achieve “consistency” in their upcoming fixtures.
The Lionesses begin their European Championship title defence with qualifying games for next year’s tournament, starting with Sweden at Wembley on April 5 before facing the Republic of Ireland in Dublin four days later. Group A3 also includes France, who England will play in May.
April’s fixtures will be the first set of competitive games since their Nations League disappointment in December, where England’s hopes of securing a spot for Team GB in the Paris Olympics were ended and Mead believes they are in a “tough group” for the upcoming qualifiers.
Speaking about her reaction to the draw, the England forward told PA news agency: “We came in from training, saw the draw- it’s not the nicest group in the world!
“I think me and (Arsenal team-mate) Katie McCabe had a little joke about having to play against each other and winding each other up with her playing for Republic of Ireland.
“There’s no easy game in women’s football these days and I think we’ve ultimately got a very tough group and we’re going to have to be on top of our game to do very well in this group.
“I think the biggest thing for us as an England squad is consistency, we let ourselves down in some Nations League games and now we’ve just got to be consistent in the way we play, the way we’re building.
“Hopefully we can get two wins on the board this international break which puts us in really good stead for the rest of the games in the group.”
Mead is an ambassador for McDonald’s Fun Football and was celebrating the return of sessions, which will see 500,000 children across the UK provided with free football coaching this spring.
She is in action on Sunday as Arsenal hunt for silverware in the Continental Tyres League Cup Final against Chelsea at Molineux, but after the international break only five Women’s Super League games remain.
The title race is out of Arsenal’s control with the team sat six points away from joint-leaders Chelsea and Manchester City, and Mead admits the Champions League is the target now.
“I think looking forward to the rest of the season as a team we’ve got to, as cliche as it sounds, game by game, three points on the board,” Mead added.
“Our ultimate goal now is to get Champions League football and you never know what happens in football, but it’s out of our hands title-wise now and we’re very aware of that.
“Throughout the season itself I think consistency has been our biggest problem, we’ve been a little bit up and down with some games, lost some games that arguably we probably shouldn’t have.
“That’s something we need to rectify going to the end of the season, then we reset and start again fresh next year.”
Mead also has an eye on former club Sunderland, who are top of a tightly-contested Women’s Championship with three games to go.
Four other teams remain in the running to secure promotion to the WSL and Mead, who joined Arsenal from the Black Cats in 2017, highlighted the importance of keeping all the women’s leagues competitive.
“I’ve been to a few games in the Championship this season, I obviously follow Sunderland still and they’re top at the moment so hopefully they can keep themselves there,” she said.
“It’s amazing to see how much talent is coming through and the backing these clubs in the lower leagues are getting from the men’s side of things.
“That’s what we want to keep doing, we want to keep every league as competitive as possible and make England still one of the best leagues in the world.”
Beth Mead was celebrating the launch of this year’s McDonald’s Fun Football programme, available to all children aged 5-11 across the UK. Sign up now for your nearest FREE session at mcdonalds.co.uk/football.
Bristol City Women 0-4 Man City Women: Hosts relegated as Fowler double inspires WSL leaders
Mary Fowler scored twice to set WSL leaders Manchester City on their way to a 4-0 rout of Bristol City, who suffered relegation as a result, on Sunday.
With Arsenal having drawn with Everton earlier in the day, Man City knew a victory would be enough to take the title race down to two teams.
That victory duly arrived in emphatic fashion, with all four of Man City's goals arriving in the second half.
Fowler's fantastic strike opened the scoring in the 62nd minute, with the Australia international doubling her tally soon after, paving the way for an Amy Rodgers own goal and Alex Greenwood's late header to seal a huge victory.
Arsenal are now out of the title race, with Chelsea - who have two games in hand on Gareth Taylor's team - the only side capable of catching Man City.
The Robins, meanwhile, will be playing in the second tier again next term.
Data Debrief: Bristol heading down with a whimper
Bristol City have failed to score in their last five games in the WSL, a run of 544 minutes without a goal.
They mustered just 0.09 expected goals (xG) to Man City's 3.4, with the visitors having now kept a clean sheet in nine of their 20 league games this season.
De Rossi demands more from 'tired' Roma ahead of crunch run
Daniele De Rossi acknowledged his Roma team may be tired, but he insisted they must not allow themselves to be embarrassed.
Roma fought back to draw 2-2 with last season's Serie A champions Napoli in a pulsating fixture on Sunday.
Tammy Abraham's late header secured a point for De Rossi's team, who took the lead through Paulo Dybala's penalty before going behind to goals from Matias Olivera and Victor Osimhen.
With Serie A set to have five teams in the Champions League next season, Roma occupy fifth spot with four matches remaining, but sixth-placed Atalanta are just two points behind with a game in hand.
There is also the small matter of a Europa League semi-final against Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen on the cards over the coming weeks, and De Rossi set the stall out.
"We drew, it is not a result to throw away, but it is not the result or the performance that we wanted," Roma coach Daniele De Rossi told Sky Sports Italia.
"At times you can steal the ball off Napoli, but we then gave it back again too many times. Napoli had a lot of chances in the first half, we did better in the second, but we have to do better.
"Look, we are tired, but we cannot start thinking that we’re tired and that means we can be embarrassed in the final few weeks of the season."
Roma host Leverkusen on Thursday before taking on Juventus on May 5, with a crunch clash against Atalanta – who are also into the Europa League semi-finals – set to follow after the away leg against Xabi Alonso's team.
Key to a successful end to the campaign for Roma will be keeping Dybala fit. The Argentine has been involved in the joint-most goals (12) in Serie A since the turn of the year, scoring nine and setting up three, level with Juve's Dusan Vlahovic.
PSG's latest Ligue 1 title arrives as Monaco lose to Lyon
Paris Saint-Germain have been crowned as Ligue 1 champions after Lyon overcame Monaco 3-2 on Sunday.
A 4-1 midweek win over Lorient ensured that one more victory would be enough for Luis Enrique's team to get over the line, but PSG failed to get the job done themselves when they faced relegation-threatened Le Havre on Saturday.
That game was the 700th match of the QSI era at PSG, and the club's 1,900th in France's top flight.
However, PSG's wait to win their third straight title did not last long, as less than 24 hours later, Lyon – who will face the Parisians in the final of the Coupe de France at the end of May – came out on top in a topsy turvy encounter with second-placed Monaco.
Substitute Malick Fofana was the matchwinner for Lyon, and ultimately the player who handed the title to PSG.
Wissam Ben Yedder had put Monaco ahead in the opening minute, but quickfire goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Said Benrahma turned the match on its head before half-time.
Ben Yedder netted his second to restore parity on the hour mark, and thought he had sealed his hat-trick when he volleyed in from a free-kick, only to have strayed offside.
With only a win good enough for Monaco to stay in the fight, the visitors were then caught out in the 84th minute, with Fofana racing onto Lacazette's throughball and finishing calmly.
After a dismal start to the season, relegation looked a real possibility for Lyon, but they are now, with three games remaining, still in with a shout of qualifying for Europe.
PSG on the other hand now have 12 Ligue 1 titles to their name, with 10 of those coming under QSI's ownership. Aside from the COVID-impacted 2019-20 season, five of their last six league titles have been secured before the start of May.
It also means Luis Enrique remains in the running for a treble in his first season at the club, with PSG taking on Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League semi-finals next week.
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