Lucy Bronze’s greatest matches

England 1 Japan 1 June 26, 2013 Friendly

“Hope Powell was manager at the time and had a reputation for not giving new players much of a chance – so when you got one, you knew you deserved it. Japan were world champions and I came on for my debut. Jade Moore came on at the same time and Hope was giving her loads of instructions: ‘Do this, do that, don’t do that’. She then turns to me, this woman who’s so stern with everyone and hadn’t called me up for ages, and says, ‘Just go out and enjoy yourself’. I was like, ‘Excuse me?!’ It ended 1-1. I scored but it was ruled out for offside – I’ll always remember that.”

Liverpool 3 Bristol Academy 0

October 12, 2014 Women’s Super League

“We were 3rd in the league, and to win the title, Chelsea had to lose, Birmingham had to slip up and we had to win. At breakfast that morning, we had a laugh, saying, ‘We’re going to win the league today’, even though nobody believed it. Then it happened... madness. I scored, we won, and I jumped into the crowd to find out what was going on elsewhere. Chelsea had lost and Birmingham had drawn. We were champions!”

Norway 1 England 2

June 22, 2015 World Cup Last 16

“The best goal I’ve scored and will ever score – into the top corner from 25 yards. The fact that I didn’t even know I was capable of that made it more special. I was like, ‘Are these my feet?! What the hell just happened?!’ I scored again in the quarter-final against hosts Canada, even though I average about three goals a season!”

Lyon 0 Manchester City 1

April 29, 2017 Champions League semi-final

“This was the match that changed everything. We won, then Lyon’s president came up to me and said, ‘You’re such a good player.’ Someone who owned the team with all the superstars in women’s football came to tell me that! I didn’t think anything of it. They had a good defender in my position, but within a couple of weeks there was interest, and I joined Lyon after the Euros.”

Wolfsburg 1 Lyon 4

May 24, 2018 Champions League final

“It was a huge occasion and a bit overwhelming. Wolfsburg took the lead in extra time and that’s what it took for us to say, ‘OK, here we go...’ Then it was bam, bam, bam, bam. I remember after the third goal, Shanice van de Sanden and I were celebrating, and there was just a moment where I thought, ‘This is why I love football’.”