Women's Euros: Bronze opens up on playing through injury after helping England to Wembley final

By Sports Desk July 27, 2022

England star Lucy Bronze has revealed she is playing through pain caused by a knee injury in order to help the Lionesses' bid a first major tournament victory, having netted in a 4-0 semi-final rout of Sweden.

Bronze's header put England two goals up against the Swedes at Bramall Lane, after which Alessia Russo's incredible backheel and Fran Kirby's long-range strike helped the hosts record the biggest ever victory in a Women's Euro semi-final.

Tournament hosts England, beaten European Championship finalists in both 1984 and 2009, will now take part in the showpiece final at Wembley on Sunday.

And Bronze, who scooped FIFA's The Best Women's Player award in 2020, is blocking out the pain in an attempt to help her country to glory, as she played down her last-four goalscoring feat.

"I've just got to play through it," Bronze said. "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'. 

"It's been difficult to come back from a knee injury which has lingered for a very long time and still is now."

Bronze added: "The goals and assists are not something I consider a major part of my game. I'd much rather the likes of Beth and Ellen [White] and Hempo [Lauren Hemp] get on the scoresheet. I enjoyed it, though. I'd not scored in a Euros.

"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. It would be nice to be part of her little individual journey."

England ended a run of three successive major semi-final defeats with their resounding win in Sheffield, having fallen in the final four at the 2017 Euros and the 2015 and 2019 World Cups.

And Bronze believes those painful experiences made Tuesday's win even sweeter, adding: "For players like myself and Ellen and Fran, who've experienced a lot of semi-final defeats, it's nice to get over those defeats, get over the line and finally get ourselves in the final. But it’s certainly not job done."

Meanwhile, England boss Sarina Wiegman has come in for praise after leading the side through an unprecedented 11-match winning streak, the Lionesses scoring 104 goals in her 19 games at the helm.

Bronze believes Wiegman's ability to keep the squad grounded has been a major factor in their terrific run on home soil, adding: "It's just practical information she's giving. I think that being Dutch, she's to the point. She tries not to get carried away. 

"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 – to come through that was amazing not just for the team but for her as a manager and coach.

"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 on to the next game. We don't get carried away with our emotions but on and off the field we still enjoy the game and still enjoy the moment at the right time."

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  • Former Nottingham Forest and Liverpool defender Larry Lloyd dies aged 75 Former Nottingham Forest and Liverpool defender Larry Lloyd dies aged 75

    Nottingham Forest have paid tribute to double European Cup winner Larry Lloyd, who has died at the age of 75.

    Lloyd, who also won the First Division title and UEFA Cup with Liverpool, was a key player in the Forest side which won the European Cup in 1979 and 1980 under manager Brian Clough.

    The Bristol-born defender won four caps for England and went on to manage Wigan and Notts County following the end of his hugely-successful playing career.

    In a statement on the club’s website, Forest wrote: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Larry Lloyd.

    “Part of the Miracle Men, Larry was an integral player in the Forest side that memorably won back-to-back European Cups in 1979 and 1980, making 218 appearances for the club in total.

    “We send our condolences to Larry’s friends and family at this truly sad time. Rest in peace, Larry.”

    Lloyd began his career with Bristol Rovers before being signed by Liverpool manager Bill Shankly for £50,000 in 1969.

    The Reds won the league and UEFA Cup double in 1973, with Lloyd remarkably playing in every game that season.

    Liverpool paid tribute to an “aerially dominant and strong-tackling” player, whose goal in the first leg of the UEFA Cup final against Borussia Monchengladbach proved vital.

    Lloyd made it 3-0 on the hour mark following a brace from Kevin Keegan at Anfield, with the Reds winning 3-2 on aggregate after losing the second leg in Germany 2-0.

    “Liverpool FC is deeply saddened by the passing of former defender Larry Lloyd, aged 75,” the club said in a statement.

    “LFC will pay tribute to Lloyd with a period of applause at Anfield on Sunday when the Reds host Brighton.

    “The thoughts of everyone at the club are with Larry’s family and friends at this sad time.”

    After two years at Coventry, Lloyd moved to the City Ground in a £60,000 deal and went on to form a vital centre-back partnership with Kenny Burns as Forest beat Malmo in the European Cup final in 1979.

    Forest retained the trophy a year later against Kevin Keegan’s Hamburg.

  • UEFA to consider increasing Euro 2024 squad sizes at meeting next month UEFA to consider increasing Euro 2024 squad sizes at meeting next month

    UEFA will consider a possible increase in the size of squads for Euro 2024 at a meeting next month.

    A number of coaches have called on European football’s governing body to allow countries to take 26 players to Germany instead of 23, a move England boss Gareth Southgate may be glad to accept as he deals with a number of injuries.

    “We have taken note of comments expressed by some national team coaches on the squad size for Euro 2024,” UEFA said in a statement released on Friday.

    “A workshop with the participating teams will be held on 8 April and on that occasion UEFA will listen to the views of the coaches.

    “Any idea in this respect will then be considered and assessed.”

    This summer’s finals is the first time since the 2018 World Cup that national team managers are having to pick a 23-man squad for a major tournament after it was expanded to 26 following the coronavirus pandemic.

    Speaking after his side’s 2-2 draw with Belgium at Wembley, Southgate said: “It seems to be (settled at 23).

    “There is one more UEFA meeting where there’s been a little bit of talk amongst some of the coaches about possibly increasing that.”

    That meeting will be part of a wider finalists’ workshop on April 8 and 9 in Dusseldorf, where Southgate will not push for 26 but will accept it if the decision goes that way.

    Southgate, who has previously said it is a “bigger skill to pick a 23”, was asked if he was in favour of a move to an expanded selection and said with a smile: “Well, given where we are now!

    “We’ve got to make the best decisions with what we know and some of those currently are going to be medical decisions.

    “And we’ve been able to get those right in the previous tournaments. We’ve been able to give people time, but with 23 that’s definitely more difficult.”

    Previous expanded selections allowed Southgate to take a calculated gamble on the fitness of Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson at Euro 2020 as the pair recovered from injury.

    The same went for Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips at the 2022 World Cup as they worked their way back to fitness, with injured duo Luke Shaw and Reece James potential beneficiaries if it goes to 26 this time.

  • Beth Mead aware England face a tough qualifying group Beth Mead aware England face a tough qualifying group

    Beth Mead admits England’s Euro qualifying group is “not the nicest” but hopes they can achieve “consistency” in their upcoming fixtures.

    The Lionesses begin their European Championship title defence with qualifying games for next year’s tournament, starting with Sweden at Wembley on April 5 before facing the Republic of Ireland in Dublin four days later. Group A3 also includes France, who England will play in May.

    April’s fixtures will be the first set of competitive games since their Nations League disappointment in December, where England’s hopes of securing a spot for Team GB in the Paris Olympics were ended and Mead believes they are in a “tough group” for the upcoming qualifiers.

    Speaking about her reaction to the draw, the England forward told PA news agency: “We came in from training, saw the draw- it’s not the nicest group in the world!

    “I think me and (Arsenal team-mate) Katie McCabe had a little joke about having to play against each other and winding each other up with her playing for Republic of Ireland.

    “There’s no easy game in women’s football these days and I think we’ve ultimately got a very tough group and we’re going to have to be on top of our game to do very well in this group.

    “I think the biggest thing for us as an England squad is consistency, we let ourselves down in some Nations League games and now we’ve just got to be consistent in the way we play, the way we’re building.

    “Hopefully we can get two wins on the board this international break which puts us in really good stead for the rest of the games in the group.”

    Mead is an ambassador for McDonald’s Fun Football and was celebrating the return of sessions, which will see 500,000 children across the UK provided with free football coaching this spring.

    She is in action on Sunday as Arsenal hunt for silverware in the Continental Tyres League Cup Final against Chelsea at Molineux, but after the international break only five Women’s Super League games remain.

    The title race is out of Arsenal’s control with the team sat six points away from joint-leaders Chelsea and Manchester City, and Mead admits the Champions League is the target now.

    “I think looking forward to the rest of the season as a team we’ve got to, as cliche as it sounds, game by game, three points on the board,” Mead added.

    “Our ultimate goal now is to get Champions League football and you never know what happens in football, but it’s out of our hands title-wise now and we’re very aware of that.

    “Throughout the season itself I think consistency has been our biggest problem, we’ve been a little bit up and down with some games, lost some games that arguably we probably shouldn’t have.

    “That’s something we need to rectify going to the end of the season, then we reset and start again fresh next year.”

    Mead also has an eye on former club Sunderland, who are top of a tightly-contested Women’s Championship with three games to go.

    Four other teams remain in the running to secure promotion to the WSL and Mead, who joined Arsenal from the Black Cats in 2017, highlighted the importance of keeping all the women’s leagues competitive.

    “I’ve been to a few games in the Championship this season, I obviously follow Sunderland still and they’re top at the moment so hopefully they can keep themselves there,” she said.

    “It’s amazing to see how much talent is coming through and the backing these clubs in the lower leagues are getting from the men’s side of things.

    “That’s what we want to keep doing, we want to keep every league as competitive as possible and make England still one of the best leagues in the world.”

    Beth Mead was celebrating the launch of this year’s McDonald’s Fun Football programme, available to all children aged 5-11 across the UK. Sign up now for your nearest FREE session at mcdonalds.co.uk/football.

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