![Lucy Bronze key to turning table on Lionesses' long-time nemesis France](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/football/2024/05/30/TELEMMGLPICT000379798280_17170909821320_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq5s6bUpp027wcGsMFR5ShjsOkgPmYtLLqkSktzrBSYzQ.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Lucy Bronze key to turning table on Lionesses’ long-time nemesis France
Victory over Sarina Wiegman’s bogey team will give England’s Women a major boost ahead of next year’s Euros
![Lucy Bronze key to turning table on Lionesses' long-time nemesis France](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/football/2024/05/30/TELEMMGLPICT000379798280_17170909821320_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq5s6bUpp027wcGsMFR5ShjsOkgPmYtLLqkSktzrBSYzQ.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Having avoided France for the first three years of her reign as England head coach, Sarina Wiegman will now meet them twice in the space of five days – and will be hoping to avoid the misery they have inflicted on so many of her predecessors.
France – the only team in the top 10 of the world rankings that Wiegman is yet to face since taking charge of England in 2021 – have historically been the Lionesses’ nemesis. In their 25 previous meetings, England have won only four times, losing 13, and they have not won an away fixture in France since the two team’s first official meeting in 1973. They will hope to change that in Saint-Etienne on Tuesday in the second of two crucial Women’s European Championship qualifiers.
It was a 1-0 victory in the quarter-finals of the 2017 Euros that ended England’s 43-year wait for a win over France, then Phil Neville’s first game in 2018 delivered a 4-1 win. But the Lionesses’ most recent meeting with France, who are ranked third in the world, saw them lose 3-1 under interim boss Hege Riise in an away friendly. On that night, the pace of Kadidiatou Diani and Sandy Baltimore on the counter-attack caused England myriad problems and, at St James’ Park on Friday night, Wiegman’s team will need to be wary of the visitors’ attacking weapons.
“It’s an extremely competitive group and France are an incredible team,” said England centre-back Millie Bright. “They pose a lot of threats. But equally there are things we can do to put the threats on them. So I think we have to be extremely prepared. We know it will be two tough games.”
Perhaps the toughest of the French threats will come from Lyon wingers Diani and Delphine Cascarino, who both possess skill and power. However, their appearance in last weekend’s Women’s Champions League ended in defeat by Barcelona. A key part of the Catalan side’s back four that kept a clean sheet in Bilbao was England right-back Lucy Bronze, who impressed head-to-head against Cascarino.
Bronze’s strength as an attacking right-back has often been valuable for England, but her tendency to roam forwards has occasionally left large areas of space behind that opponents have exploited. In these upcoming games, Wiegman’s side cannot afford for that to happen. If she edges forward too often, she will leave her team exposed to breaks from Diani and Cascarino. Instead, England need a lot of positional discipline from Bronze to thwart France’s attacking options.
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At the opposite end of the caps spectrum to Bronze, who has 121, is Chelsea youngster Aggie Beever-Jones, who could make her debut off the bench and added earlier this week: “The quality in Europe is unmatched with [teams like] Spain and France. They’re a very good side, as are we, and I think it will be a really, really exciting game. It’s quite rare in football to be able to play a team back-to-back. We’ll want to come away with as many points as possible.”
Vice-captain Bright also feels the competition in the international game has intensified since England lifted the European title in 2022, adding: “As you see from the results, it’s harder to win, it’s harder to keep clean sheets, it’s harder to score and that’s great for the women’s game and the direction that we want to keep going in. But it’s always harder, every single game gets harder and harder.
“You can’t ever just plateau, you always have to go above and beyond. And I think as a group, we review and analyse ourselves and where maybe the opposition got a little bit of success against us and where things need to tighten up but for me it always starts on the training pitch. Sarina constantly tells us that we still have to improve and we always have to look forward and keep developing. Other teams are doing the exact same thing.”
Only the top two sides in this four-team qualifying group can qualify for next summer’s Euros in Switzerland automatically. The bottom two sides will have to contest play-offs in the autumn to try to book their place.
After opening with a somewhat disappointing home draw against Sweden and then winning well away in the Republic of Ireland in April, England are second in the group with four points, two behind France, who started with back-to-back victories.
The home crowd in Newcastle should be an added advantage for the Lionesses as they look to leapfrog France in the table, with only 1,500 seats left on sale by Thursday lunchtime.
England probable XI (4-3-3): Earps; Bronze, Bright, Williamson, Greenwood; Stanway, Walsh, Toone; Mead, Russo, Hemp