After back-to-back narrow World Cup misses, Lucy Bronze hopes this is England’s year

BURTON UPON TRENT – Long-time Lionesses defender Lucy Bronze has never been able to watch a Women’s World Cup final – after being knocked out in the semi-finals twice in a row on the global stage. The emotions were too raw.

“Every World Cup I’ve played in, we’ve been so close,” she said at St George’s Park. “Because we always get knocked out at the semis... I just don’t like it.”

The 31-year-old hopes this is the year England, seen as one of the favourites at the World Cup that kicks off on Thursday in Australia and New Zealand, snap that semi-final streak.

England were fourth at the 2019 edition in France,

losing to eventual winners the United States 2-1

in their semi-final. It still stings four years later.

“The difference between us and the US on the day that we played them was a VAR (video assistant referee) decision, a penalty save,” said Bronze, who won the tournament’s Silver Boot.

She made a stellar World Cup debut in 2015, scoring the winner in England’s 2-1 quarter-final victory over host nation Canada. The Lionesses went on to win bronze.

“I got home and there were adverts which had never been there before,” said Bronze. “We had not won a knockout game at a World Cup until 2015. It was a huge moment in my career – scoring goals, winning.

“As a nation, it was a huge shift for women’s football and for the team in terms of mentality.”

If that was a mentality shift, Lionesses coach Sarina Wiegman compared England’s long wait for a major tournament win to a national “trauma”.

Victory on home soil in Euro 2022

secured England’s first major tournament in the women’s game and ended a 56-year wait for any success since the men’s side won the 1966 World Cup.

“What I really noticed is wanting to win a tournament is so deep in society that it was almost a trauma,” the Dutchwoman told the BBC.

“After winning, people were so proud and it was so intense. It’s really been incredible.”

But that has also raised hopes.

“The expectations are really high and yes, we have a dream,” said Wiegman.

“In a tournament, it’s so unpredictable. I think there are lots of countries that are still favourites and they are really, really strong and I think we’re one of them.”

Among those other favourites are two-time winners Germany, who lost to England in the European Championship final.

Forward Lea Schuller is confident Germany can learn from the setbacks they faced at the last Women’s World Cup and European Championship.

Germany dominated every European Championship from 1995 to 2013 and have a record eight crowns, having also won consecutive World Cups in 2003 and 2007.

But their last international title, apart from an Olympic gold in 2016, is now a decade old, and their 2022 runners-up spot to England at the European Championship is their best result since 2013.

“I think after the European Championship we need to show that we aren’t just top in Europe, but in the whole world. I think that we can do it,” Bayern Munich’s Schuller told Fifa’s website.

“I think we can still beat all the teams... The best we can do is to think from game to game, like we did in the European Championship.”

Europe’s other World Cup contenders are Spain, France and Norway.

Spain should be among the favourites for the World Cup, but the absence of

several key players in protest of coach Jorge Vilda

means they are nowhere near full strength.

Patri Guijarro, who struck twice for Barcelona as they won the Champions League, and club teammates Mapi Leon and Sandra Panos are big misses. They are among 12 players who said they did not want to be considered for selection, citing their “emotional state”.

France, meanwhile, avoided their own mutiny after unlike the Spanish, their football federation caved in to player demands and

replaced coach Corinne Diacre

with Herve Renard.

Renard says his team have been “perfect” with their work ethic and attitude, but he will be without injured stars Amandine Henry, Delphine Cascarino and Marie-Antoinette Katoto.

In contrast, Norway have a returning star in Ada Hegerberg, the maiden Ballon d’Or Feminin winner in 2018 and Women’s Champions League record goalscorer.

They have other talented attacking stars like Caroline Graham Hansen and Guro Reiten but flopped at Euro 2022, where they were hammered 8-0 by England at the group stage. REUTERS, AFP