There was plenty of change against South Africa, as promised by Wiegman this week, and she said it led to some of the sloppiness on show.

England were caught out on numerous occasions at the back, with not just Williamson making errors.

“We swapped players in different positions so that’s not easy to adapt to and to get the right connections,” said Wiegman.

“Maya le Tissier moved from the right side to the left side and Ella Toone came into a different position [in midfield]. That needs some time.

“I saw some struggles so we have to get through that and try to take the sloppiness out.

“We want to keep playing forward and getting better connected with players in different positions. I ask a lot from them.”

Earlier this week, Wiegman said England needed to deal with criticism as expectations have grown around her side.

As well as claiming the Euro 2022 crown on home soil, they reached the Women’s World Cup final in 2023.

While these two friendly performances did not assure supporters they will be up to scratch when Euro 2025 kicks off next July, there is certainly no need to panic.

England have two more friendlies this year against Olympic gold medallists the United States – managed by former Chelsea boss Emma Hayes – and Euro 2025 hosts Switzerland on 30 November and 3 December respectively.

Wiegman insists she wants to use these matches to “gain information” that will help them at Euro 2025, and has been pleased with what she has gathered so far.

“I think we still have more questions, but that was what we said to each other before this camp. We don’t need to have all the answers now,” said Wiegman.

“We have two more games [this year] and we’re just trying to get as much information as possible. We want to see more players.

“Some players have to be a little more patient than others but we are moving forward and we need these games to try out different things to be better later on.

“We put players in other positions that we wanted to see [against South Africa]. This is the moment to do that.

“Some things I was really happy with, and in other moments, of course, we can improve.”

CRISTIANO RONALDO blazed a stoppage-time penalty over the bar as Al-Nassr were dumped out of Saudi Arabia’s biggest cup competition.

Ronaldo and Co hosted Al-Taawoun on Tuesday night in the last 16 of The King Cup.

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Al-Nassr sit seven points above Al-Taawoun in the Saudi Pro League and were expected to book their place in the quarter-finals.

But they fell behind with 19 minutes remaining as Waleed Al-Ahmed gave the visitors a shock lead.

Ronaldo, who scored and assisted against Al-Taawoun in the Saudi Super Cup back in August, was given the perfect opportunity to equalise in added time when Al-Nassr were awarded a penalty.

But he stepped up and fired well over the bar from 12 yards as Al-Nassr crashed out.

Manchester United and Real Madrid icon Ronaldo, who has nine goals in 12 games this season, was left with his head in his hands after his late miss.

Reacting to the penalty, one fan said: “Madrid fans need a break 😂.”

While another added: “No way he missed a pen and knocked his team out of the competition 😭😭.”

A third replied: “Gifted him a penalty to level the game and he roofed it!”

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And a fourth responded: “No way Penaldo missed the penalty.”

The result means a golden opportunity for silverware goes begging, with Al-Nassr already playing catch-up in the league.

They sit six points adrift of table toppers Al-Hilal after drawing three of their opening eight matches.

Ronaldo’s only silverware since joining Al-Nassr was last year’s Arab Club Champions Cup.

DARWIN NUNEZ did not get a rousing vote of confidence from Arne Slot after he revealed Diogo Jota will be missing for weeks.

It appears the mercurial Uruguayan is THIRD in manager Slot’s pecking order of Liverpool’s No 9s.

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Jota looks unlikely to return until after November’s internationals amid abdominal damage suffered in the 2–1 win over Chelsea ten days ago.

And Federico Chiesa could be out for even longer as the £10million arrival from Juventus is struggling following a series of niggling injuries.

Yet Slot says he would have turned to the Italian — and not £64m man Nunez — in the absence of Jota.

The Dutchman starts a run of four games in 11 days before the next international break with a Carabao Cup trip to Brighton.

And Slot admitted: “It is a pity that Jota is not available.

“And Chiesa is also not available as they were, in my opinion, the most logical No 9s but we still have other options.”

One possibility there is Nunez, who has played in the main striker’s role for the last three games, scoring in the 1–0 Champions League win over RB Leipzig.

But Kop boss Slot, who had only started him in two of the ten previous games since taking over from Jurgen Klopp, admits he is “worried” about the loss of Jota and Chiesa ahead of a punishing spell.

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Former Feyenoord gaffer Slot brushed off suggestions Chiesa could return to Italy on loan in January.

And he was not jumping for joy at being forced to turn to Nunez, who has just 35 goals in 106 appearances since arriving from Benfica more than two years ago.

Slot added: “About Darwin, I gave him credit for the fact he worked so hard in previous weeks when he didn’t play a lot to be able to play three games in a row.

“Three games in eight days, so that says a lot about him.

“But it also says a lot about the quality of our performance staff and medical staff that we were able to give him the right sessions to prepare him in the right way.

“You always need the player to buy in because you can give him the right sessions but if he doesn’t give everything then it is very difficult for him to do what he did.”

Slot also points to the fact that Nunez had a five-game international ban revoked having joined team-mates to battle rioting Colombian fans after his country’s Copa America semi-final defeat in August.

He played against Peru and Ecuador last month, with Slot saying: “It was a good thing his ban for the Uruguay team was cancelled so he could play.

“That has probably really helped him to play the way that he did in the last three games.

“I’m not talking about the quality he played with, but the intensity he played with. The quality was also good — so that was a positive thing.”

Slot is planning on making changes on Wednesday night as Liverpool host Brighton in the Prem on Saturday, as well as ex-Kop hero Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League before a visit from Aston Villa.

Seagulls boss Fabian Hurzeler is without defender Lewis Dunk who has a “small muscle issue” and conceded his captain is “not easy to replace”.

Hurzeler added: “He’s a great healer, so we have to go day by day. For sure, we can’t take any risks with him — but he’s keen on coming back as soon as possible.”

The 2025 Tour de France will be staged exclusively in France for the first time in five years.

The 112th edition of the Grand Tour will feature 21 stages, starting in Lille on 5 July and ending in Paris on 27 July.

The Tour had raced through Andorra in 2021 while it had Grand Departs in Copenhagen in 2022, Bilbao in 2023 and Florence in 2024.

The 2025 race will also see a return of the Champs-Elysees finale on the 50th anniversary of its first finish there. The Tour finished outside Paris for the first time in its history this year because of the Olympics.

“We decided to bring the Tour home, it was high time after all the foreign starts,” said race director Christian Prudhomme.

The Tour, stretching 3,320km (2,063 miles), will feature two time-trials and six mountain-top finishes, with the first part taking place mostly on the plains.

“A week in the plains is not the joy ride it was in the old days. We have cut the sprint stages and laid traps everywhere,” Prudhomme said.

“I don’t think Thierry Gouvenou, who mapped out the route, left a single climb [untouched] between Lille and Brittany.”

UAE Team Emirates’ Tadej Pogacar won his third title this year to secure a Tour de France-Giro d’Italia double and is set to battle two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard for the yellow jersey again in 2025.

The women’s Tour, meanwhile, has added a ninth stage and will run from 26 July to 3 August.

Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma won the third edition of the Tour de France Femmes this year.