Lucy Bronze: 'England's mentality change is 10 years in making'
- Published
Lucy Bronze is the only player in England's World Cup squad with more than 100 caps
Lucy Bronze hopes England can go one step further and win the Women's World Cup for the first time this summer after reaching back-to-back semi-finals.
Bronze, 31, has won almost every trophy in her club career and has appeared in five major tournaments for England including Euro 2022.
"Every World Cup I've played in, we've been so close," said Bronze.
"I've actually never watched a World Cup final because we always get knocked out in the semi-finals and I just don't like it."
'We've been working on that for 10 years'
Lucy Bronze scored an iconic winning goal from outside the penalty area in the last 16 against Norway in 2015
Bronze has been involved with England for a decade and has seen a change in mentality which she says is not just down to manager Sarina Wiegman's arrival.
The Lionesses went on a 30-game unbeaten run under Wiegman, also winning two Arnold Clark Cups and the first ever Women's Finalissima.
"A lot of people say 'Sarina changed England' but we've been working on that for 10 years. We had to go through every milestone for the first time," said Bronze.
"We beat the US, we beat France, we beat Germany, we won a knockout game - for the first time. We had to go through every single process for the first time.
"Obviously the trophy is the main one but there was so many small milestones that we hit that changed our mentality. England's done most things now."
Bronze believes that she and Keira Walsh, who both joined Barcelona from Manchester City in 2022, have benefited from the move to Spain - and that is helping them drive standards in England training.
"My role at Barcelona is different to what it's been in previous teams. Every single player wants to play with the ball so the responsibility of defending falls a lot more on my head than it does elsewhere," said Bronze.
"It's given me a different outlook on how to play football. I think Keira is the same - the pair of us drive a different kind of standard now at England training that has never been there before.
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"It's not the style of play necessarily but the expectation and the kind of the quality you expect from a team that wins trophies and playing with the best players in the world."
Bronze says the 2015 World Cup was her "Chloe Kelly moment".
While Kelly hit the headlines with an extra-time winner in the Euro 2022 final, Bronze caught the eye with crucial goals en route to the last four in 2015, claiming the right-back spot from Alex Scott in the process.
"I got home and there were adverts which had never been there before," said Bronze.
"We had not won a knockout game at a World Cup until 2015. It was a huge moment in my career - scoring, winning goals and I nailed down the right-back spot.
"As a nation it was a huge shift for women's football and for the team in terms of mentality."