Lucy Bronze excited for Euro 2022 quarter final clash with new Barcelona teammates
By Ali Rampling
England and Spain have never met in the knockout stages of a major women's tournament, but when the pair go toe to toe in the quarter finals of Euro 2022, it will be familiar territory for Lucy Bronze.
Five years earlier, England beat France 1-0 in the last eight of Euro 2017 and a little over a fortnight later, Bronze's move to European heavyweights Lyon was announced.
Eight members of France's Euro 2017 squad played their club football at Lyon, while nine of Spain's 23-player squad represent Barcelona domestically - the team that Bronze joined ahead of Euro 2022.
"Yes definitely [looking forward to it]," Bronze said of Wednesday's quarter final. "I can’t say I know any of them (Spain's Barcelona players) personally. But it will be nice to play against them.
"It’s funny because the last Euros I actually played against France and we knocked them out and I moved to Lyon a few weeks later, so I’ve already been through that awkward situation.
"Either way I’m pretty excited for the match up and either way the team’s going to have world class players playing that we need to stop regardless if they’re team-mates, ex-team-mates, whatever it is. We’re just excited for it."
England surged into the knockout stages by topping their group with three wins from three. The Lionesses netted 14 goals across their three fixtures - with their 8-0 victory over Norway a new European Championship record - and are yet to concede.
However, Bronze stressed the importance of not getting carried away with the team's form given anything can happen in the knockout stages of tournament football.
"To be honest, the quarter finals is a one-off game so regardless of form going into it it’s who turns up on the day," the right back added. "We’ve had a great last two games, but we narrowly edged past Austria so we have to show up and do our best no matter who we face in the quarterfinal.
"The opposite team could turn up and have an amazing game as well. So we have to put to bed our form now. We can celebrate, we’ve had a lot of records and goals, but that’s it - a quarterfinal’s a quarterfinal."