England’s Lucy Bronze explains how Lionesses can overcome World Cup semi-final hoodoo vs Australia
ucy Bronze believes winning Euro 2022 last summer has given the Lionesses the tournament know-how needed to reach their first ever World Cup final.
England went all the way at their home Euros last year as they won their first ever major women’s trophy.
They are now looking to follow that up with World Cup glory and reached their third semi-final in a row by beating Colombia 2-1 on Saturday.
England have never made it past this stage before, though, and must find a way of defeating co-hosts Australia.
But Bronze believes the Lionesses can call upon their experience of winning Euro 2022 as they prepare for Wednesday’s sell-out semi-final in Sydney.
“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,” she 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.
“If we hadn’t have gotten to the semi-final, I would have said that we would have underperformed.
“A lot of people said that England were the team that were going to flop a little bit.
“Our performances haven’t been our best, granted, but the results have been there and we’ve got to the semi-final, which is what this England team is known for doing.
“We know what we’re facing for the next game. It’s going to be another feisty affair, which we’re looking forward to.”
Australia will be backed by a huge home support on Wednesday and their quarter-final win over France on Saturday drew in the biggest TV audience since Cathy Freeman raced to gold in the 400m at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The Matildas, like the Lionesses a year ago, have captured the attention of home fans and Bronze is braced for the challenge.
Alessia Russo celebrates her goal for England against Colombia.
/ AFP via Getty Images“As we were warming up we could hear the cheers outside and could pretty much guess what the cheers were for,” she replied, when asked about Australia beating France in a dramatic penalty shootout.
“Then we heard one big cheer at the end and then they put it on the screen that Australia were through, so in the warm up was when we found out.
“Obviously we didn’t watch the game. It’s incredible that Australia have made it this far and that they’ve stayed in the tournament throughout.
“It’s amazing for the fan base and I always think that when home nation is still in it, it attracts more attention.
“There are positive and negatives for being that home nation and for being the team against it.
“It can be a lot of pressure to put on teams. I remember playing Canada in 2015 in that World Cup and there was a lot of pressure put on that team, and it gave them a lot of fight.
“It was the same thing for us in the Euros last year. The 12th man as they say – it really helped us.
“It was a key part to us winning and I think that’s been a key part for Australia when their backs have been against the wall this tournament.”
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