Published 08 August 2022 4 min read
England Women's Senior Team
Bronze going for World Cup gold
The Lionesses defender says winning the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next summer is the next target for Sarina Wiegman's side
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Lucy Bronze has already set her sights on adding another honour to England’s list, with focus now shifting to next year’s Women’s World Cup.
Just a week on from becoming European Champions after an unforgettable summer during EURO 2022, culminating with victory over Germany at Wembley Stadium.
The Lionesses will be back in action next month when they play their final two games of the European Qualifiers, with the table-toppers facing a trip to Austria on Friday 3 September before Luxembourg are the visitors to Stoke on Tuesday 6 September.
And Bronze, who will be playing in Spain with Barcelona next season, is already looking to build on this year’s achievements in a year’s time when the World Cup is staged by Australia and New Zealand.
“Anybody that knows me knows I’m like that with anything,” she said. “The EUROs is fantastic, especially in our home country, but there’s a little star missing from our crest at the minute on the England shirt and it’s definitely a mission of ours to get that star there.
“I’d love to get my hands on the World Cup, but we know there are plenty of teams outside of Europe who want to compete for that World Cup, as well as the teams in Europe who were in this tournament.
Just a week on from becoming European Champions after an unforgettable summer during EURO 2022, culminating with victory over Germany at Wembley Stadium.
The Lionesses will be back in action next month when they play their final two games of the European Qualifiers, with the table-toppers facing a trip to Austria on Friday 3 September before Luxembourg are the visitors to Stoke on Tuesday 6 September.
And Bronze, who will be playing in Spain with Barcelona next season, is already looking to build on this year’s achievements in a year’s time when the World Cup is staged by Australia and New Zealand.
“Anybody that knows me knows I’m like that with anything,” she said. “The EUROs is fantastic, especially in our home country, but there’s a little star missing from our crest at the minute on the England shirt and it’s definitely a mission of ours to get that star there.
“I’d love to get my hands on the World Cup, but we know there are plenty of teams outside of Europe who want to compete for that World Cup, as well as the teams in Europe who were in this tournament.
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“I guess it’s up for grabs and we’re in a good place at the minute as I think we’ve had a winning mindset for a couple of years now.
“We’ve been pushing that and just needed to match it on the field and we’ve finally done that.
“So it’s nice to be able to back up what we’ve been saying, that we’re good enough to win things, good enough to win tournaments and make finals.
“We’ve finally done that and now we want to continue to do that.”
After a short break following the EUROs, it won’t be long before Sarina Wiegman has to select her next squad for the two qualifiers.
With players set to return to their clubs in the Barclays WSL and beyond in the next few weeks, these matches will take place before the start of the 2022-23 domestic calendar.
But given the strength in depth of players which Bronze has seen in the last year, the 30-year-old right-back believes there’s more than enough in the ranks to keep driving the standards until next summer.
“We’ve been pushing that and just needed to match it on the field and we’ve finally done that.
“So it’s nice to be able to back up what we’ve been saying, that we’re good enough to win things, good enough to win tournaments and make finals.
“We’ve finally done that and now we want to continue to do that.”
After a short break following the EUROs, it won’t be long before Sarina Wiegman has to select her next squad for the two qualifiers.
With players set to return to their clubs in the Barclays WSL and beyond in the next few weeks, these matches will take place before the start of the 2022-23 domestic calendar.
But given the strength in depth of players which Bronze has seen in the last year, the 30-year-old right-back believes there’s more than enough in the ranks to keep driving the standards until next summer.
“We’ve got a year to build on what we’ve already done here,” she added.
“We could potentially carry on that momentum and that buzz and lift of the nation’s support - how well we’ve been playing, people’s performances both individually and collectively, so it could work well in our favour.
“I mean it was tight even just for this squad and the players that missed out, us as players we couldn’t have guessed.
“In training, the level was high and there’s even more players than the training sessions - people like Jordan Nobbs, who were injured and weren’t even part of the squad to be able to be picked from.
“The competition for places is going to be higher and higher, but I think that just pushes for performances.
“I think that is what you have seen from our forwards this tournament. There’s so much competition so someone will come on like Alessia Russo and make the difference.
“Chloe [Kelly], [Ella] Tooney and all these players are just pushing everyone else to make sure they keep their shirt, whether it’s in the starting XI or the squad.”
If you want to watch a Barclays Women’s Super League or Women’s Championship game, find out when your local team is in action.
“We could potentially carry on that momentum and that buzz and lift of the nation’s support - how well we’ve been playing, people’s performances both individually and collectively, so it could work well in our favour.
“I mean it was tight even just for this squad and the players that missed out, us as players we couldn’t have guessed.
“In training, the level was high and there’s even more players than the training sessions - people like Jordan Nobbs, who were injured and weren’t even part of the squad to be able to be picked from.
“The competition for places is going to be higher and higher, but I think that just pushes for performances.
“I think that is what you have seen from our forwards this tournament. There’s so much competition so someone will come on like Alessia Russo and make the difference.
“Chloe [Kelly], [Ella] Tooney and all these players are just pushing everyone else to make sure they keep their shirt, whether it’s in the starting XI or the squad.”
If you want to watch a Barclays Women’s Super League or Women’s Championship game, find out when your local team is in action.
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