Millie Bright is the defender made in Sheffield who has brought steel to the England defence.
Bright, 28, was born down the road in Chesterfield, went to Sheffield United’s academy until she was 16 and has been overwhelmed with requests from friends and family for tickets for the semi final at Bramall Lane.
Chelsea defender Bright was an absolute rock in the quarter final win over Spain and believes the whole squad learned valuable lessons from that night when they were pushed to the brink.
They now face Sweden hoping to end their semi final curse having lost at the same stage in their last three major tournaments. But they will also have a big home advantage on their side and, in particular, some local support for the experienced centre half.
Bright said: “It’s massive. It’s coming back to Sheffield but more importantly for me is playing in a home Euros semi final so that beats anything.
“It’s nice to have family in the crowd who haven’t been able to come to any of the other games. My sister has been taking care of the tickets so I’ve not had to worry about that.
“But every time I pull on this England shirt, I feel at home no matter where I am. But in terms of the bad memories, it’s part of my journey and my international journey so I wouldn’t want to erase any memories in football.
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“You learn from the past and as long as you learn from the memories and improve from that then it’s important. But it’s nice to be back home, in my home town and I’m looking forward to seeing the fans in the crowd. I’ve been a couple of times to Bramall Lane and been on the pitch at half time as well.”
Bright scored an on goal and was booked when England lost the 2017 Euros semi final and suffered defeat two years later to the United States in the World Cup. They were painful moments in a career otherwise littered with success after seven years at Chelsea but she is also adamant that the setbacks help make them what they are today.
Bright said: “It’s hard to compare, every semi final is different and forms part of the journey. You learn from experiences and we’ve learnt a lot of lessons from the previous semi finals but they have to be parked to one side, we’re on a new journey and we’re in a different place as a team.
“But the youngsters have also experienced big losses, whether that’s with their clubs as well, so even though they’re young they’re experienced in different ways. So everyone is ready for the game.
“We’re on a new journey now, on a different path as a group so we focus on the here and now so we’re ready to fight in the games. Everyone is feeling great.”
The quarter final win over Spain also felt like a big moment. They went behind, relied on a late equaliser to go into extra time and then held their nerve to win in dramatic fashion.
It was also the game which really lit up the tournament and should guarantee even more interest for the Sweden game. But it was also a valuable experience for the players.
Bright added: “It improves your mentality a lot. But we went into the Spain game knowing it was a possibility because they are such a great team and it was a different challenge because we’d been scoring a lot of goals and not come up against that.
“It was important to find a different way of winning, finding a way back into the game, a goal and then dealing with the pressure to go through. That proved a lot to ourselves and everyone out there.”
