England's Lucy Bronze on how she could have been playing for Portugal against the Lionesses at Women's Euro 2017

Mark Sampson's Lionesses face Portugal on Thursday in their final Group D game at the Women's European Championship in Holland

Lucy Bronze could well have been on the opposing side in Thursday's match (Getty)

England right-back Lucy Bronze has revealed she was offered the chance to play for Portugal at the age of 16.

Mark Sampson's Lionesses face Portugal on Thursday in their final Group D game at the Women's European Championship in Holland.

And Bronze, whose father is Portuguese, admits she could have been lining up for the opposition in Tilburg had things worked out differently.

"I was asked to play for them on Facebook," the 25-year-old Manchester City player said. "A woman called Monica Jorge, who's now the head of women's football in Portugal, got in touch.

"She must have watched an England youth game I was playing in and heard it mentioned that I was half-Portuguese. She got in touch with my mum and dad on Facebook and basically said: 'Obviously it's a long shot as Lucy's playing for England's junior teams, but if there's ever a chance she might want to play for Portugal we'd more than welcome her into the squad and develop her'.

"I was about 16 at the time and I didn't break into the England senior team until I was 21. Before then it hadn't looked on the horizon. In the end I only broke into the squad for the 2013 Euros because there were a lot of unfortunate injuries and it felt like I'd just been chucked in. (Then England boss) Hope Powell said: 'We've got a few players injured, you're the next one in'. So I didn't really feel like I was properly in the squad.

"It got close to the point where I was thinking: 'I just want to play international football and I'm just as much Portuguese as I'm English'. It wouldn't have felt like a disservice to England. But then the manager changed, (interim head coach) Brent Hills played me and Mark's played me."

Sampson's side edged closer to the quarter-finals in Holland with a 2-0 victory over Spain on Sunday, having thrashed Scotland 6-0 in their opener last week.