England are into the World Cup semi-finals and Lucy Bronze has been here before. She was there in Canada in 2015 to be dealt the heartbreak as Laura Bassett turned the ball into her own net and gave Japan a ticket to the final; she was there for that night in Lyon four years ago where Steph Houghton’s late penalty miss provided the customary anguish and the USA marched towards yet another title.
If you’re English, there’s a certain aura that surrounds semi-finals. Its near-certainty refuses to discriminate between men’s and women’s football and has long plagued records at the game’s biggest tournament: England make it to last four and that’s as far as they will ever go.
