Lucy Bronze believes England can end their history of World Cup semi-final heartbreak on Wednesday against Australia after proving they have what it takes to win trophies.
The Lionesses, including Bronze, were beaten in the 2015 and 2019 semi-finals but secured a home triumph in last year’s Euros and followed that by defeating the champions of South America, Brazil, in April’s Finalissima.
England have laboured through this tournament and Bronze sees parallels with 2015, when England lost their opening game to France before four 2-1 wins booked a place in the semi-finals, where they lost to Japan by the same scoreline. This time, though she feels the outcome can be different.
“It very much reminds me of 2015 – having to fight in every single game,” she said. “We had 2-1 wins throughout the tournament and a 1-0 win against Germany [in the bronze medal match]. This reminds of the fights we had. I think the difference with this team is that we have won trophies, we have won tournaments, so we do know what to do.
“We knew coming into the tournament that it wasn’t going to be easy. There was a lot of outside noise about whether England was going to be able to cope well with everything thrown at us so far and the semi-final is what is expected of us as the England team.”
The margins in those previous World Cup semi-finals were thin. In 2015 Laura Bassett’s crushing last-minute own goal allowed Japan to progress, and four years later Steph Houghton’s saved penalty denied England a late equaliser against the eventual champions, the USA.
“We got past that hurdle last year in the Euros and finally made it to the final and got past that dreaded ‘always getting beaten in the semi-finals’, so we’ve got that in the locker,” Bronze said. “Many players in the squad were part of that so we know how difficult it is to get this far and also how to get to the final and how to win games.”
In 2015 the semi-finals represented overachievement, whereas anything less here would have been deemed a failure such is the level of support around England and their consistency. The performance in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat of Colombia was a significant improvement on the last-16 shoot-out defeat of Nigeria but the Lionesses, by their own admission, have yet to put in a display that wows.
“If we hadn’t gotten to the semi-final I would have said that we would have underperformed,” says Bronze. “A lot of people said that England were the team that was going to flop a little bit. Our performances haven’t been our best, granted, but the results have been there.”
The World Cup is the only trophy that has eluded Bronze, who has won the Euros and swept up at club level. “To win every trophy apart from top goalscorer – I’ve not got that in my locker unfortunately – would be an outstanding achievement,” the Barcelona player said. “Nobody has ever won the World Cup and Champions League in the same year.”
Standing in her way is a nation riding the crest of a feelgood wave that looks as if it will never break. Australia earned a first semi-final berth with a penalty shoot-out defeat of France.
“We knew it was 0-0 and had gone to penalties,” Bronze said. “As we were warming up we could hear the cheers outside and could pretty much guess what the cheers were for. Then we heard one big cheer at the end and then they put it on the screen that Australia were through … It’s incredible that Australia have made it this far. It’s amazing for the fanbase and I always think that when the home nation is still in it, it attracts more attention.”
