Keira Walsh admitted England did not have the “solutions” to deal with Spain as their bid for automatic qualification for the Women’s World Cup took a huge hit.

England suffered a 4-0 defeat to Spain – their heaviest loss under Sarina Wiegman – with Alexis Putellas leading the rout with a brace on either side of half-time.

Patri Guijarro and Claudia Pina also got on the scoresheet, meaning England conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier for the very first time.

Before this match, they had not lost a qualifier since November 2002.

England had needed to avoid defeat to secure top spot in Group C, but their fate is now out of their hands after Spain leapfrogged them in the table.

They named an experienced squad for the match. Their starting XI contained players with a combined total of 763 caps.

That is the second most for a match under Wiegman, behind the 774 caps the XI had ahead of the 2025 Women’s Euro final.

“I just think there was a lot of areas we weren’t good enough,” Walsh told ITV. “Spain played incredibly well at home, but I think there are a lot of things we could have done better.

“I don’t think we were good enough, but they were very, very sharp, so that made it a very difficult game for us.

4 – England have conceded four goals in a Women’s World Cup qualifier for the very first time.

Before tonight, they hadn’t lost a qualifier since November 2002. Shocked. pic.twitter.com/TO6SHU0ysT

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 5, 2026

“It felt like they had bodies everywhere. It was very difficult to get out of our own box. I don’t have solutions. Obviously, we’ll look back, but right now the emotions are very high – it was a disappointing game.

“We’ve still got a small chance to qualify. It’s out of our hands. All we can do is control how we play the next game and hope Iceland do us a favour.”

England struggled in Mallorca, with Spain racking up 21 shots worth 3.5 expected goals (xG), while the visitors were limited to just three off-target attempts while accumulating 0.2 xG.

England’s final group game is against Ukraine on Tuesday, but they know even a win might not be enough to secure top spot.

The Lionesses will only top the group if they better Spain’s result, with La Roja facing Iceland in their last qualifier.

“A very difficult night. The difference was big,” Wiegman told ITV.

“We weren’t at our best, although I thought we started well. When they got into a rhythm and got the first goal, we didn’t get to our strengths, and they played really well.

“It also has to do with a very good Spain tonight. We wanted to harm them in the back in the first half, especially after those couple of moments that started well, we played short and harmed ourselves.

“We should have skipped players, and we just didn’t get there. We found it really hard to keep the ball. It has to do with us and also Spain.

“We need to stick together, and we have one more game on Tuesday to show what we can do. These are the hardest moments. We have to recover from this and show we are still a very good team.”