They’re scared of us now says Bronze

LUCY BRONZE claims England’s rivals are running scared.

Phil Neville’s reign kicks off in Columbus, Ohio, tonight with France first up in the SheBelieves Cup.

Bronze, who skippers her country for the first time in place of the injured Steph Houghton, said: “I know from playing for Lyon with all the different nationalities that people are a little bit scared of playing England now. That’s different. In the past, I wouldn’t say we were a joke as such, but people disregarded us a bit.

“They didn’t have a huge amount of respect for us. They knew we would be physical – we still are – but they didn’t think we could play.

“Now they’re aware we have more angles to our game and teams are a little bit scared. We have beaten all the best teams over the last couple of years and we’re up to third – you can’t ignore that. We’re not here to make up the numbers.”

Bronze, a key member of the squads who reached the last four in the 2015 World Cup and last year’s Euros, has seen England rise to third in the rankings. And with Neville breathing new life into the players she is confident Germany and the USA need to watch their backs.

Neville has been quick to make his mark and

Today England v France

(Columbus, Ohio): (9pm, BBC Red Button); (midnight).

USA v Germany Sunday USA v France Germany v England

(Harrison, New Jersey): (5pm); (8pm, BBC Red Button).

Wednesday France v Germany USA v England

(Orlando, Florida): (9pm); (midnight, BBC2). was furious at the end of his first training session when a player left a water bottle on the pitch.

“I’ve tried to raise the bar in terms of every facet of performance and so far they have risen to every challenge I’ve set them – apart from leaving a water bottle on the training pitch,” he said.

“Doing that is unheard of, so we talked about the standards that I want from them. The little things matter – I’m a stickler for standards.”