LET’S GO AND WIN IT
Bronze: We can beat Germany and lift trophy
England defender lucy Bronze has warned the lionesses that their job is far from done and urged them to go on to win the Euro 2022 final against germany.
Bronze scored the second goal in the 4-0 thrashing of Sweden which booked England’s place in Sunday’s Wembley final. But she knows there is plenty of work left before they can celebrate. ‘It’s certainly not done,’ said Bronze (below). ‘For players like myself, Ellen White and Fran Kirby who’ve experienced a lot of semi-final defeats, it’s nice to get over the line and finally get ourselves in the final. But it’s not job done. ‘Before the tournament I was always focused on wanting to win the final. now we’ve every chance of doing that. That was a job we came here to
do and we’ve put ourselves in the best position to do that.’ England’s victory means Sarina Wiegman is the first manager to lead two different nations to Euros finals, after she won with the Netherlands in 2017. Bronze believes Wiegman’s calmness on the touchline has been key to the Lionesses going one step further than in the last three tournaments. ‘That’s made the difference,’ she said. ‘Her being Dutch, she’s to-the-point. She tries not to get carried away. It’s funny that pretty much everyone in the whole of Holland said they’ve never seen Sarina Wiegman jump around like she did after the Spain game. She said herself that the Spanish performance was one of the best she’d ever seen.
‘In a home Euros there’s a lot of emotion and a lot of support. We don’t want to get carried away too much and she’s one of those people who is very process-driven.
‘She’s very excited but once the game’s done, we’re on to the next one. We don’t get carried away with our emotion but on and off the field we still enjoy the game and still enjoy the moment at the right time. ‘Obviously she’s been through the process many times before, making finals. She probably knows it better than anyone.’ A record crowd will attend the Euro 2022 final, with 90,000 expected at Wembley for the biggest game of the summer. The best gate for a women’s game in the UK is 77,768, for England’s friendly against Germany in 2019. A limited number of tickets went on sale to England fans yesterday.
A TV audience of 11.2million, including streams, tuned into BBC1 to watch Wiegman’s side thrash Sweden. The crowd of 28,642 in Sheffield was a record for a semi-final at a women’s European Championship.