Bronze already looking forward to bouncing back against the Netherlands and Scotland

The dust had not long settled on England’s 3-2 defeat to Belgium and Lucy Bronze was already relishing the challenge of beating the Netherlands and Scotland in December as the players chase Nations League – and Olympic Games – qualification.

Only the top team in each Nations League group will qualify for next year’s finals, with the winners of the semis then securing a place at the Olympic Games.

Tuesday night’s 3-2 defeat to Belgium leaves them with an uphill battle as they are now three points behind the Netherlands and one below Belgium, with two games remaining and both teams having superior head-to-head records after their victories over the Lionesses.

But Bronze was quick to stress: "We still have a good chance. We play our next game against the Netherlands at Wembley, a stadium where we like to step up and a team we played quite recently.

“We'll put this game to bed, analyse it properly and the mistakes we made and we'll look forward to playing Netherlands and Scotland, which are two really tough games. We've left ourselves with a bit more to do but it's not impossible.”

It was Bronze who had pulled England level with an impressive header before Fran Kirby – making her first England start in more than a year – made it 2-1.

A sloppy pass deep in Belgium’s half just before the interval allowed the hosts to counter and Tessa Wullaert to equalise, before the captain secured the winner from the penalty spot with five minutes remaining.

Bronze said: "I think we created more chances than the last game but we were sloppy around the ball in general. The goals came from our loose passes and apart from that they didn't really create much.

“Particularly in the first half, we had a few chances to put the game to bed and could have been a bit more clinical in front of goal.

“It was unfortunate to concede a penalty at the end and that got them ahead again and we just couldn't get the ball across the line in the last half hour.”

When asked why they were sloppy on the ball, Bronze continued: "I don't know. In the other game, it was almost the opposite. We were so good on the ball but just didn't create chances.

“I think it's one of those things, we'll have to do a lot better. It was similar to the game against the Netherlands where we gave the ball away too easily. I guess it's just something we will have to work on collectively and individually.”