Lucy Bronze has said England are “not happy with our performances” and “can give more” in the World Cup quarter-final against Colombia on Saturday.
The Lionesses laboured against Nigeria, losing Lauren James to a red card for stepping on Michelle Alozie before winning the last-16 tie on penalties. It was the third time in four games that England have looked unconvincing at the World Cup, with injuries leading to changes in personnel and formations and the best formulations yet to be settled on.
“We can give more,” Bronze said. “We’re a fantastic team with highly talented players but the important thing is we got through to the next round. There’s no point in playing our best performances in the first games; we might as well save them for the quarter-finals or further than that.”
The Barcelona full-back said there were lessons to be learned from the struggles against Haiti, Denmark and Nigeria, as well as the 6-1 demolition of China.
“We’ve built on every game, we’ve taken something from every game – whether that was the Haiti game that was physical, the Denmark game when we lost our key player in Keira [Walsh], the China game we changed the formation completely, [the Nigeria game where] we had a red card.
“Everything that has been thrown at us, we’ve dealt with and moved forward. I don’t see many other teams who’ve had that adversity and if they have, I don’t think they’ve managed to overcome the way we have. At the same time, we are not happy with our performances.”
Bronze’s sentiments were echoed by Alessia Russo, who believes the team have to play better to win the World Cup.
“I think we will progress as a team but also, at the same time, we want to win and move forward,” the forward said. “That’s all that matters in this tournament. We don’t want to be going to penalties every time. We want to win.”
Russo feels the mentality and strength of the group carried them past Nigeria. “We have a really special bond in this team and we all have complete trust in each other,” she said.
Bronze credited the belief in their ranks. “We’re quite a confident team anyway,” she said. “The belief is huge. We had that in extra time and penalties. We know our strengths; we know what we’re capable of and we showed that to the world.”
Next come a thrilling and young Colombia team who have taken the tournament by storm, with backing from a hefty following of fans. Bronze said: “The most important thing is that we’re coming out of games with wins … There’s many top teams who are going home because they haven’t been able to get that point or been able to see the games out in the penalty shootout and we have. We’ve shown that side of our team – that we know what it takes to win.”
