England star Lucy Bronze warns Lionesses there is still plenty of work to do to win Euro 2022… as the right-back reveals an old knee injury means she is now having to play through pain
- Lucy Bronze says England still have work to do ahead of the Euro 2022 final
- The defender scored the second of the Lionesses’ four goals against Sweden
- Bronze is playing through pain after missing part of last season with knee injury
Lucy Bronze says the job isn’t done yet after England thrashed Sweden to make the final of Euro 2022.
Bronze scored the second goal in a 4-0 win which booked the Lionesses’ place at Wembley. But the defender, who had suffered three semi-final defeats prior to Tuesday’s victory, is adamant there is still work to be done before England can celebrate.
‘It’s certainly not done yet,’ Bronze said. ‘For players like myself and Ellen [White] and Fran [Kirby] who’ve experienced a lot of semi-final defeats, it’s nice to get over those defeats and get over the line and finally get ourselves in the final. But it’s certainly not job done though.
Lucy Bronze says that England have work to do ahead of Sunday’s Euro 2022 final at Wembley
‘I think anyone I’ve spoken to before the tournament knows I was always focussed on wanting to win the final. Now we’ve every chance of doing that. That was a job we came here to do and now we’ve got ourselves in the best position to do that.’
Bronze missed half of the 2021-2022 season after undergoing knee surgery and the defender admitted previous injuries are still causing her problems.
‘It’s been difficult to come back from a knee injury which has lingered for a very long time and still is now. I’ve just got to play through it. There are plenty of players who are having to play through pain in their career and I’m now one of them.
‘I don’t feel like I did a couple of years ago. The Lucy Bronze of a couple of years ago was “the best player in the world!” I’m still happy to be contributing to the team, still playing good football, obviously getting an assist for Beth [Mead] and getting her up there to get the Golden Boot.’
The Lionesses had suffered three defeats at the semi-final stage before Tuesday’s epic 4-0 win
England’s victory means Sarina Wiegman is the first manager to lead two different nations to the final of a European Championship, after she won the competition with the Netherlands in 2017.
Bronze believes Wiegman’s calmness on the touchline has been key in the Lionesses going one step further than the last three tournaments.
‘I think that’s made the difference in the finals now. I think that being Dutch, she’s to the point. She tries not to get carried away. I think it’s quite funny that pretty much everyone in the whole of Holland said they’ve never seen Sarina Wiegman jump around like she did after the Spain game. I think she said herself that the Spanish performance was one of the best she’d ever seen.
‘I think in a home Euros there’s a lot of emotion and a lot of support. We don’t want to get carried away too much and she’s one of those people that is very process driven. She’s very excited but once the game’s done we’re onto the next game.
Bronze has praised Dutch manager Sarina Wiegman for her approach to leading the Lionesses
‘We don’t get carried away with our emotion but on and off the field we still enjoy the game and still enjoy the moment at the right time. Obviously she’s been through the process many times before, making the finals. She probably knows better than anyone.’
A record crowd will attend the Euro 2022 final, with 90,000 expected at Wembley for the biggest game of the summer.
The best gate for a women’s game in the UK is 77,768, for England’s friendly against Germany in 2019. A limited number of tickets went on sale to England fans yesterday.
A TV audience of 11.2million, including streams, tuned into BBC1 to watch Wiegman’s side thrash Sweden. The crowd of 28,642 in Sheffield was a record for a semi-final at a women’s European Championship.
