‘Many people said England would flop’: Lucy Bronze is confident the Lionesses can progress to the World Cup final despite the semi-final curse
‘Many people said England would flop’: Lucy Bronze is confident the Lionesses can progress to the World Cup final despite the semi-final curse
Lucy Bronze says England have the fight and the experience to make it to the World Cup final after overcoming their hoodoo in the semi-finals at last summer’s European Championship.
The Lionesses had lost three semi-finals in a row – including the 2015 and 2019 World Cups – before beating Sweden 4-0 at Euro 2022.
England beat Colombia 2-1 to set up a semi-final with Australia and Bronze, who have played in the last two World Cups, are confident the Lionesses can use their past experience to progress to the final .
“We got over that hurdle at the European Championships last year and finally made it to the final and got past the dreaded semi-final defeat, so we’ve got that covered,” said Bronze.
“If we hadn’t made it to the semi-finals, I would have said we underperformed.
Lucy Bronze is making her third World Cup appearance for England, having represented her country in 2015 and 2019, but is determined to break her country’s semi-final curse
England achieved a 2-1 victory over Colombia with bronze star player Linda Caicedo, who joined Real Madrid in February 2023, beating rivals Barcelona and Chelsea with her signature
“A lot of people said England was the team that was going to flop a bit.
“Our performance was not our best, admittedly, but the results are there and we have the semi-finals, which this English team is known for.
“It (this tournament) reminds me a lot of 2015, where I had to fight in every match.
“I think the difference with this team is: we’ve won trophies, we’ve won tournaments, so we know what to do. We knew when we started the tournament that it wasn’t going to be easy.
“There was a lot of outside noise about whether England could handle everything that has been thrown at us so far and the semi-final is what is expected of us as the England team.
A peak audience of 7.2 million tuned in to watch England’s quarter-final on ITV, while the BBC will show the semi-final against Australia on Wednesday.
Sweden has shown strong showings in the tournament so far, proving to be some tough competition
The Lionesses have had to adapt due to Keira Walsh’s injury and Lauren James’ red card
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