England dressing room 'not happy' ahead of Colombia Women's World Cup clash

England dressing room 'not happy' ahead of Colombia Women's World Cup clash
Jack Otway

By Jack Otway


Published: 09/08/2023

- 15:30

The Lionesses battled their way to victory over Nigeria on Monday

England players know they must improve if they're to win the Women's World Cup, according to Lucy Bronze.

The Lionesses managed to make the quarter-finals of the competition with a dramatic penalty shootout victory over Nigeria on Monday.


England will now have to contend without Lauren James, however, after the 21-year-old was sent off in the 87th minute.

The Chelsea star will be absent when the Lionesses lock horns with Colombia in the last eight on Saturday.

England Lucy Bronze

England star Lucy Bronze has opened up ahead of Colombia Women's World Cup clash

PA

And Bronze says she and her England team-mates know they must up the ante if they're to reign supreme and bring the trophy home, with the veteran also admitting they weren't happy with their displays.

"We can give more," the 31-year-old told Sky Sports.

"We're a fantastic team with highly-talented players, but the important thing is we got through to the next round.

"There's no point in playing our best performances in the first games, we might as well save them for the quarter-finals or further than that.

"We've built on every game, we've taken something from every game, whether that was the Haiti game that was physical, the Denmark game when we lost our key player in Keira [Walsh], the China game we changed the formation completely, [Monday] we had a red card.

"Everything that has been thrown at us, we've dealt with and moved forward.

"I don't see many other teams who've had that adversity and if they had, I don't think they've managed to overcome the way we have.

"At the same time, we are not happy with our performances."

Bronze also insists England will work hard to right the wrongs in their game.

"All we can do is go back to training and make sure we are focused on the job at hand," continued the 31-year-old.

"The most important thing is that we're coming out of games with wins.

"I think I said that after the Haiti game, and some people thought that was not probably what they wanted.

"However, we're the ones who are still in the competition and there's many top teams who are going home because they haven't been able to get that point or been able to see the games out in the penalty shootout and we have.

"We've shown that side of our team that we know what it takes to win."

England are still strong favourites to beat Colombia on Saturday - even without James.

And they're hoping they'll be able to welcome back the youngster later in the tournament.

As things stand, James will certainly miss Saturday's clash.

But because she was sent off for effectively stamping on her opponent, she could be in line for a longer suspension.

England will go into the match against Colombia looking to make the semi-finals for the third Women's World Cup in a row.

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They finished third in 2015, when the tournament was held in Canada, before ending the 2019 competition in France in fourth place.

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