Lucy Bronze: England victory ‘changed the narrative’ on Euros hopes | OneFootball

England defender Lucy Bronze says England’s 4-0 victory over the Netherlands gives them belief heading into the rest of the tournament.

The Lionesses were back to their very best in Zurich, as Lauren James, Ella Toone and Georgia Stanway filled the scoresheet in a tremendous win at Women’s Euro 2025.

“We finished the game against France and we got cameras and microphones shoved in our face telling us how bad we are, so it was important that we changed the narrative for ourselves,” Bronze said.

“We stuck together, and drawing on experiences is obviously a huge part of that. Getting the noise out of your head and getting a different noise is a good thing.

“A couple of older Lionesses messaged me to remind me of the same kind of experiences that we went through, told us that everybody’s believing in us. The most important message was sticking together, and that’s how we played from the first minute.

“I think we started the game really well. We put the Netherlands under a lot of pressure, and I think it maybe caused them to doubt themselves a little bit, and we just continued that.

“Whereas I think in the France game, we started well, and then maybe eased off a little bit. France were a top team, like the Netherlands, but we just kept going and going. Even the scoreline, we went for more goals, we kept going for more in the end.

“It was a performance that we knew we had in us, and we just had to stick together and show that today.”

The experienced defender stressed the importance of England ‘changing the narrative’ on what was a poor showing against France on match day one.

The Lionesses head into the final group stage game with their destiny in their own hands, but they must beat Wales in order to progress to the knockout stages. Bronze says that the side will build on the confidence and the momentum they gathered from the 4-0 victory over the Dutch.

“It [the performance] gives you a huge sense of belief,” Bronze added.. “Even in the France game, we didn’t play well and we nearly nicked a draw against one of the best teams in the tournament.

“I think people are really forgetting that France are a very good team and we could easily meet them in the final. That’s how big that game was, so I think we’ve drawn confidence from that as well.

“We’ve drawn confidence from today. Obviously winning is a better result and a better thing for us, but we have to just focus on the Wales game rather than thinking too far ahead in the tournament.”