Ruthless Lionesses star aiming to knock one of her best friends out of Euros
England star Lucy Bronze is relishing the prospect of taking on one of her best friends from club side Chelsea when the Lionesses face Sweden on Thursday night Since returning to the WSL with the Blues last year, Bronze has developed a strong partnership down the right with Johanna Rytting Kaneryd.
The pair will be on opposite sides of the pitch in the quarter-final, but stopping Sweden's player of the match in their win over Germany could be key to Sarina Wiegman's team getting a result. "Johanna's actually probably the person I get on best with at Chelsea, she is one of my best friends there," Bronze said.
"Obviously I play next to her as well, and I play next to [Sweden defender] Nathalie Bjorn, so I am very familiar with the both of them and they both have had fantastic tournaments so far. The thing with Johanna is her mindset.
"One thing I'd say about myself is I'm very competitive and this girl is very competitive as well. I've seen it this season at Chelsea and when she puts on a Sweden shirt she's the same. She'll run through a brick wall for her team.
'How to stop her? Hopefully she is on the other side to me. She is a pacey player and done really well but I think if we stick to our jobs and our roles, we will be able to have a good game against her as well.'
Sweden star Kosovare Asllani pointed to her team's physical ability and that's something England boss Wiegman is expecting to have to deal with. Sweden have put in more crosses than any other team at the Euros this year, and victories over Denmark, Poland and Germany suggest the approach has been working for Peter Gerhardsson's team.
'That's what they want to do of course, we know they have some qualities,' Wiegman said. 'They're good in the air, they want to put in crosses, they have some speed up front too.
"So we're going to try and prevent that. Of course it helps when we have the ball a little bit more than they have.'
Wiegman also spoke about the increase in female coaches making deep runs in the tournament. She was the only female head coach to take charge at a World Cup quarter-final in 2023 but is one of four at this year's Euros - along with Spain's Montse Tome, Switzerland boss Pia Sundhage, and Norway's English manager Gemma Grainger.
'What we're all working on is we hope more females stay involved in football," Wiegman said. "We want girls to play football, we want every girl, every woman having the opportunity to get involved in football in whatever role that is, and also in coaching
"We have to push hard, we're moving into the right direction but we have to keep moving to keep having these opportunities - but not destroying men who are in the women's game also and have played a tremendous role.'
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