Mary Earps facing uphill battle to be England No.1 - but Michelle Agyemang is a Euro 2025 wildcard: Lionesses winners & losers as Sarina Wiegman's side impress and disappoint in Nations League clashes with Belgium

Wiegman came into this camp with several key players missing. All of Lauren Hemp, Alex Greenwood and Georgia Stanway are sidelined after having knee surgeries, with the latter pair leaving England limited at left-back and in the deeper midfield roles in particular. However, that list of absentees only grew over the course of the past few days.

On Friday, just before the first game against Belgium, the in-form Chloe Kelly had to withdraw from the squad. At the halfway point of that match, Lauren James limped off with a hamstring issue that would force her to miss Tuesday's game in Leuven. A day later, Wiegman lost star striker Alessia Russo as well, who returned to Arsenal after picking up a problem on Friday.

It left England limited in Belgium as they succumbed to a 3-2 defeat - but the greater concern will be if any of this trio are out for longer than just a game or two. The Euros are just three months away and Wiegman will absolutely not want to be sweating on the fitness of any more key players.

It felt significant that, after starting Hannah Hampton in Friday's win over Belgium, Wiegman stuck with the Chelsea shot-stopper for the third game in a row on Tuesday. Prior to this camp, she and Mary Earps had almost equally alternated reps in between the sticks since the start of 2024, Hampton playing eight of 14 games and Earps the other six. However, that scale feels like it has slowly, and subtly, been tilting in favour of the 24-year-old and, this week, Wiegman confirmed as much.

Asked outright by ITV if Hampton was now her No.1 goalkeeper, Wiegman replied: "At this moment, she’s a little bit ahead. We have two world-class goalkeepers so it’s been a really hard decision. But at this moment, Hannah is a little bit ahead."

It was a surprise to hear her say as much but also, in a way, not surprising. After all, Hampton has started to accrue more opportunities and she's regularly taken them, even if she might've hoped to have done a little better with some of the goals on Tuesday. With just three months to go until the Euros, the Chelsea star is in pole position to start for the defending champions.

Where does that leave Earps, then? There are just two more competitive fixtures before the Euros begins, plus any pre-tournament friendlies that the Lionesses partake in. If Hampton is to be Wiegman's No.1, one would imagine she will get the majority of the game time as July gets closer and closer. And this is the goalkeeper position we're talking about. It's not a role where Earps can just take opportunities to shine from the bench.

That said, it'd be a real shock if the Paris Saint-Germain star doesn't get another look-in before the Euros comes around. Wiegman's comments were by no means definitive on the No.1 shirt, with Hampton just ahead in the race. "If she gets a sniff back in that goal, she'll [do] everything to keep it," Ian Wright said of Earps on ITV, and he's right. The 32-year-old has been an incredible servant under Wiegman and has put in some cracking performances for England, with her clean sheet against the United States one very recent, and very good, example. She is going to be absolutely chomping at the bit to take whatever chances she gets - the only issue is that there might not be many left at this point.

When England won the Euros back in 2022, Beth Mead was the star of the show. Six goals and five assists in just six games saw her scoop up the individual accolades, both from the tournament and in the months that followed. However, going into the Lionesses' defence of that title, she finds herself in fierce competition for a place in Wiegman's starting XI.

The wide areas in this England squad are stacked. Hemp, James, Kelly and Beever-Jones have been battling for those spots throughout the season, with Jess Park, Fran Kirby and Grace Clinton among the other names who can, and have, played there. But while Hemp and Kelly missed this camp due to injuries, and James dropped out midway through, Mead started both games and was among England's most impressive performers on each occasion.

On Friday, the Arsenal forward linked up exceptionally well with Lucy Bronze to absolutely destroy Belgium down their left-hand side, with her unlucky to leave that game with just one assist and no goal. In Leuven, things didn't go to plan for the Lionesses in the same way, but Mead still managed to stand out as one of their better players. It all amounted to a good week in her own personal charge to be in Wiegman's line-up come that opening game at the Euros.

England have a real problem at left-back. It's a problem that has simmered away throughout Wiegman's nearly four years in charge now, rearing its head extremely prominently from time-to-time. Right now is one of those.

On Tuesday, the ease with which Belgium exposed Niamh Charles - a forward who has been repurposed as a full-back by Chelsea and now England - was really worrying. The 25-year-old was caught out by several simple balls in behind to Tessa Wullaert, who put Belgium ahead after just four minutes by latching onto one of those passes. It was hard not to feel like the Red Flames targeted Charles and her lack of natural understanding of the pitch, and it's difficult to imagine other nations not taking note of that.

Wiegman either needs to address that flaw by having Charles, and the back line as a whole, drop deeper to prevent this from happening again, or she needs to find different personnel for the role. At half-time in Leuven, she swapped Charles for former Chelsea team-mate Jess Carter, who was more solid but certainly less tested. When she entered the fray, the game was already 3-1, so there was a little less attacking impetus from Belgium. Given she is also not a natural left-back, nor the fastest, some of the same issues remain with Carter anyway.

To get Greenwood, a former left-back who is now a central defender, back from injury would allow Wiegman to resume the experiment she started in October when she and Carter alternated on the left to somewhat strengthen the weakness. However, it's still unclear when the Manchester City star will return to action.

Regardless of what happens from here, it doesn't feel like Charles can just be the default option to start at left-back anymore, as she has been, in a way, at times in recent months. Wiegman needs to figure out a way to play her there and not leave her exposed, or find a different solution.

Perhaps the brightest spot from this entire camp came late on in England's defeat in Belgium, when Michelle Agyemang masterfully controlled Leah Williamson's cross into the box on her thigh, then spun towards goal and thundered a volley into the top corner. The 19-year-old had been on the pitch for just 41 seconds and was making her Lionesses debut. What a way to introduce yourself to the international stage.

That wasn't her only positive impact on the game either, despite her only entering with nine minutes of normal time remaining. Deceptively strong, Agyemang held the ball up well on several occasions - something Nikita Parris, who started in the No.9 role in Russo's absence, struggled to do consistently - and showed good movement in and around the box.

There are just three months until the Euros but the teenager has to have put herself in the mix to be on the plane to Switzerland. She's a natural goalscorer, she's got wonderful technical ability and she's physically ready for the challenge. Plus, she can produce moments of remarkable quality, just as she did on Tuesday.