I honestly can’t believe it – Lucy Bronze overwhelmed as Lionesses reach final

Defender Lucy Bronze was overwhelmed after England beat Australia 3-1 to reach their first Women’s World Cup final.

Ella Toone, who replaced the suspended Lauren James for the Lionesses’ quarter-final win over Colombia, scored 36 minutes into her second start of the tournament in front of a capacity crowd of 75,784 in Sydney.

Australia captain Sam Kerr, making her first start of competition, equalised for the first-time semi-finalists with a stunning individual goal after the break before Lauren Hemp put England back out in front.

Alessia Russo added another late in the second half to cap off the historic encounter and set up an all-European final showdown against Spain on Sunday night.

Bronze told BBC One: “This is the one thing I’ve always wanted, to be in the final of a World Cup and after two times of getting such disappointment, I honestly can’t believe it.”

When asked what manager Sarina Wiegman said about the game in the post-match huddle, Bronze added: “We played the game how we wanted to, we were resilient, determined, I couldn’t hear much else she was saying, to be honest!

“We knew the crowd were going to be crazy tonight and she was saying about silencing them and I feel like we did that at the end after the third goal.”

Bronze also felt the support the Lionesses have received has been “unbelievable”.

She added: “We all dreamed of being in the final and all our family and friends booked here to stay until the final because they believed in us. To have everybody here and all that support is unbelievable.

“It’s been amazing to play against Australia, what a fantastic tournament they had, but I’m so happy to get to the final.”

Sunday’s final sees Bronze and Keira Walsh pitted against some of their Barcelona team-mates and the defender praised Spain’s performance in the tournament.

She said: “They’ve been very good. Me and Keira know 90 per cent of the starting 11 pretty well so I think we’ll be getting asked a lot of questions ahead of the final.”