England would have underperformed had they not made last four – Lucy Bronze

Defender Lucy Bronze revealed England would have failed to live up to their own expectations had they not reached the World Cup semi-finals.

Alessia Russo guaranteed the Lionesses would finish no lower than fourth in the 2023 tournament when her second-half goal completed a 2-1 comeback against Colombia in Saturday’s quarter-final to set up Wednesday’s meeting with co-hosts Australia.

Third place would see England equal their best-ever finish from eight years ago in Canada, but Bronze insisted reaching this stage for the third time in the European champions’ history was the bare minimum.

“If we hadn’t have gotten to the semi-final, I would have said that we would have underperformed,” said Bronze.

WE ARE #FIFAWWC SEMI-FINALISTS!