- Bronze was not allowed on the playing field against Switzerland on Tuesday
- Sarina Wiegman made it clear afterwards why the defender was banned from the field
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Sarina Wiegman has revealed why England could not play Lucy Bronze in their friendly win over Switzerland on Tuesday.
The Lionesses treated the fans to a 1-0 win thanks to an early goal from Grace Clinton at Wembley, following their 0-0 draw against the USA.
Bronze is one of England’s leading internationals with 127 caps – more than any current Lioness – but officials did not want her to add another feather to her cap.
Wiegman wanted to bring on the defender in the 83rd minute, but the 33-year-old was sent back to the bench with a bewildered expression.
“That’s when she wasn’t on the list (the official team sheet). Unfortunately, a mistake had been made, a human error,” Wiegman explained.
“We found that out and we still wanted to bring her onto the field, but unfortunately she couldn’t come, so that was really frustrating, especially for herself of course, but yeah, we couldn’t change anything anymore.”
Lucy Bronze looked stunned when she was not allowed to feature against Switzerland
Sarina Wiegman explained that she was not officially registered for the team magazine
There had been calls for Wiegman to switch sides and she made ten changes from the one that was in a stalemate with the US, led by Emma Hayes.
Clinton repaid her faith with her third international goal in five appearances – just one short of what she scored in the WSL last season.
The Manchester United star had England ahead within ten minutes, firing in from close range after a well-worked set piece bounced off the post.
“I’m happy with the win,” said Wiegman of England’s last match of 2024. “We played very well in the first half, we challenged them all the time. We mainly played in their half of the pitch, creating chances and scoring one goal.
‘I was very happy with that, because what we wanted to do with a very young team, a number of debuts and a number of starters, for the first time in [a while] who had not played for us.
‘So we made a lot of changes, but I thought it was a very good first half. I think our level dropped in the second half. We were sloppier. We didn’t think the pockets were good enough. So that was a little more difficult.”
The Lionesses’ first assignment of 2025 comes in Portugal in the UEFA Nations League.