Women's World Cup 2015: Bronze is pure gold as England progress

Full-back 'can't remember' the goal that earned nation first knockout win

Tony Leighton
Wednesday 24 June 2015 00:33 BST
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The England team celebrate after Lucy Bronze’s winning goal
The England team celebrate after Lucy Bronze’s winning goal

She hit a brilliant winner, but the right-back Lucy Bronze had to watch the TV replays of her 20-yard shot to remind herself of the goal that took England through to the World Cup quarter-finals with a 2-1 win over Norway at Ottawa’s Lansdowne Stadium.

“All I can remember is getting the feeling to shoot and luckily I hit it just right,” said Bronze, whose third England goal gave them their first-ever win in the knockout stages of the women’s tournament and set up a quarter-final against the host nation, Canada, in Vancouver on Saturday.

“It was a lovely feeling when it went in,” added the 23-year-old Manchester City defender. “But it felt like everyone else was more happy than I was. Then I thought, ‘I’ve just scored a goal in a World Cup!’ and it sunk in.

“It was an odd feeling then playing the last 15 minutes or so of the game, though. Because I’m a defender I couldn’t switch off. If you’re a defender, once you’ve scored you’ve got to put your defensive hat back on and I had to concentrate. So I couldn’t really celebrate – it’s easier if you’re a centre-forward.” Bronze’s concentration had earlier slipped for a second, her loosely hit back-pass to the goalkeeper, Karen Bardsley, almost allowing Norway in to score what would have been the opening goal just before half-time.

The Norwegians had controlled the opening period and were well worth the 54th-minute goal with which Solveig Gulbrandsen put them in front.

England had been on the back foot from the early stages and the captain Steph Houghton’s equaliser, a 61st-minute header, was their first effort on target.

Bronze said: “My back-pass was one of the few mistakes I’ve made, but I think I more than made up for it with the goal. We had to defend against Norway’s threat, but we’re used to taking the pressure – this team can deal with that sort of pressure and then go and score goals as well.

“There was never any point where I was thinking, ‘we’re going to have to pack our bags and go home’, at no point did I think we couldn’t cope. I knew that we were good enough to come back and win.”

Bronze’s all-round performance earned her plaudits from both the manager, Mark Sampson, and her Manchester City team-mate Houghton, though of the right-back’s 76th-minute winner, the latter said: “I was like, ‘stay back, Lucy, stay back,’ but Lucy’s game is about getting forward and it was a brilliant strike.

Sampson was effusive in his praise, saying: “She deserved that goal because over the last two or three games, she’s been one of our best players. I thought Lucy was outstanding. She’s got the potential to be, without a shadow of a doubt, the best right-back in the world.” A battling defender whose mother’s maiden name of Tough neatly sums up the former Sunderland, Everton and Liverpool player. Last season’s PFA Women’s Player of the Year has taken her caps count to 20 at this tournament and established herself as an important member of Sampson’s squad.

Now she is looking forward to what will be the biggest game of her career, a World Cup quarter-final in which victory would take England further than they have ever progressed in the competition’s history.

In Vancouver, where the Canada women’s team are based and where the BC Place Stadium will be packed to its 54,500 capacity – with virtually every spectator baying for a home win – it will be an intimidating atmosphere.

But England have already had a taste of what’s to come, having met the Canadians in their final World Cup warm-up game 10 days ahead of the tournament. They lost 1-0, but having beaten their opponents by the same score in March’s Cyprus Cup final, Bronze has no fears about Saturday’s meeting.

“We’ve got a bit of understanding of the home crowd and what they are about from that game just before the tournament,” she said. “But we’ve grown a lot as a team since that game, so we’ll go into this one with confidence and we’re really looking forward to the challenge.”

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