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- England survived Italy scare
- Bronze hailed the team’s resilience
- Confident ahead of another historic final
England’s journey in Switzerland has been anything but straightforward. After an underwhelming opening defeat to فرنسا, they recovered against the Netherlands and Wales before needing dramatic late heroics to defeat Sweden in the quarter-finals. Against Italy, they once again had to dig deep, with second-half substitutions turning the tide late in stoppage time and then again in extra time with Kelly’s decisive goal.
Bronze urged critics to acknowledge England’s consistency at major tournaments, pointing to an impressive streak that includes six consecutive semi-final appearances and now three straight finals. She highlighted that even European powerhouses like Spain and Germany have not sustained such form.
Speaking to reporters, Bronze said: “I think people from the outside think teams have to win every single game. I think people talk about consistency with this England team, we’ve done six consecutive semi-finals, three consecutive finals, who else has done that? Nobody. You know, Spain and Germany are fantastic teams, even they haven’t managed that feat.
“It’s hard to stay at the top in international football, so many teams have performances, then it’s up and down, they develop, but this team just keeps fighting until the end. I feel like we didn’t have anything to prove because we’ve been there, we’ve done it many, many times. It’s just the fact that the game’s getting better, international football’s not as easy as it used to be. Everybody’s fighting and everyone wants to win and everyone feels like they can win.”
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Bronze also praised the contributions of the tournament’s youngest scorer, Michelle Agyemang. The forward has now netted three times in just four senior caps and also came agonisingly close to scoring a dramatic extra-time winner against Italy when she struck the bar late in the game. Reflecting on the teenager’s rise, Bronze said: “She’s a little bit of the unknown and she brings something different to her other strikers and our attackers, which maybe other teams aren’t used to playing against – especially in an England shirt.
“So I think it gives her a lot of confidence and the team give her a lot of freedom, Sarina does. We want her to be confident and just play good football and try and score goals. When she scored the first one, we were like, ‘go and do it again’. And you saw that in the rest of the game. She was going on by herself, she had two or three good runs in extra-time where she was like, ‘I’m going to take this team to the final’. It’s amazing to see and I think that gives the rest of the team confidence.”
With the final now secured, England await the winners of Wednesday’s Germany vs Spain semi-final. The showpiece match is scheduled for Sunday, July 27 at St. Jakob-Park in Basel.
