Lucy Bronze says she feels heartbroken when looking back at the last Women’s World Cup, even four years later. England were knocked out after losing to the USA in a semi-final she describes as a “crazy, crazy close” match. USA won 2-1 before going on to become champions. “Every World Cup that I’ve played in we’ve been so close,” says Bronze, part of the team that also lost in the 2015 semi-finals to Japan. “The difference between us and the US on the day that we played them was a VAR decision, a penalty save.” Bronze’s heartbreak has been so severe that she reveals, when shown a picture of the USA lifting the trophy in 2019, that she has never watched a World Cup final. “Because we always get knocked out at the semis,” she says, “and I just don’t like … Obviously I know the goals that were scored in them and pretty much know what’s happened in each of the games but I’ve actually never watched any of the games so I’ve never seen this picture before or these celebrations, other than anything I might have scrolled past.” A key difference since 2019 is England’s victory in the Euros last year. England were among the two most-fancied teams, despite having never won a major tournament. Bronze does not think that triumph has changed much, though: “From the outside it might have changed but for us the expectation of each tournament seems to have stayed exactly the same because we’ve always expected and hoped and worked towards winning gold.” England are one of the favourites for this World Cup but Bronze cites France, the co-hosts Australia and Spain as other talented teams who could win. England’s defence has been affected by injuries, most notably to the captain, Leah Williamson, but Bronze does not believe the team will be too damaged by the loss. “Leah is a huge miss but I wouldn’t say it’s a reshuffle; we’re just going back to a different team which has already played together.” She describes Alex Greenwood and Millie Bright as an “unplayable” pair who “work perfectly” together at centre-half. Bronze moved to Barcelona in 2022 and says the experience has given her “a different outlook on how to play football” without shifting her mindset. “I think my mentality has always been the same. I think I’ve always known that I’ve been capable of being in an England team that could win something.” The role the 31-year-old plays at Barcelona is different from the one she has had in previous teams. “Every single Barcelona player only wants to play with the ball, so the responsibility of defending falls a lot more on my head than it does elsewhere,” she says. Bronze believes she and her club-mate Keira Walsh “drive a different kind of standard now at England training that has never been there before”. She says: “I think we’ve been able to add that when we’ve come back into camps, not the style of play necessarily but the expectation and the kind of quality you expect from a team which has some of the best players in the world.” The pair won the Champions League last month, which has given them immense belief. “It was her first Champions League and even being my fourth one it’s something that gives you a lot of confidence going into the World Cup,” Bronze says. So too does working under Sarina Wiegman and Arjan Veurink. She thinks that both England coaches’ attention to detail and willingness to be challenged and to listen to their players are reasons why they have been so successful. “Sarina is very headstrong and she knows what she wants and she knows what she likes to do but at the same time she’s very open to hearing opinions and other experiences,” Bronze says. “For me that’s what I’ve got out of working with the pair of them.” However, she notes that the manager is not the sole reason for the England team’s triumph: “A lot of people say ‘Sarina changed England’ but we’ve been working on that for 10 years. We had to go through every milestone from the first time we beat the US, the first time we beat France, the first time we beat Germany, the first time we won a knockout game.” According to Bronze, the team and staff are calm and relaxed. “Everybody’s pulled on an England shirt before, everybody’s been at camps before,” she says. Now to end that heartbreak.