Liverpool defender Lucy Bronze aims to celebrate her PFA Women’s Player of the Year award by helping England move a step closer to the 2015 World Cup with a qualifying win against Ukraine at Shrewsbury on Thursday evening.
By Tony Leighton
In what will be their sixth qualifying group encounter – and their last one on home soil – England will be looking to maintain their 100 per cent record with victory over a team ranked 16 places below themselves at 24th in the world.
And Bronze, who admits she is still in shock after getting the PFA award last week, will be out to make it six clean sheets in the quest to reach the finals
She said: “Getting the PFA award capped off an incredible year for me, helping Liverpool win the Super League and playing regularly for England.
“Hopefully this year I can do the same with Liverpool and be part of an England team that qualifies for next year’s World Cup in Canada.
“We’ve made a great start with five straight wins, but Ukraine are the highest ranked team in the group below us and it will be our toughest game yet.
“They know that if they beat us they’ll be in with a great chance of winning the group, but that’s what we want as well – and we’re confident we can do it.
“We’ve done really well so far and morale is high throughout the squad, but we’re taking nothing for granted and we will have to maintain our focus.”
England’s focus has been spot-on to date, as has been Bronze’s in keeping her place in the back four ahead of established internationals such as Arsenal’s former England captain Casey Stoney and Sophie Bradley of Notts County.
“It’s been really pleasing to play in all the qualifiers so far,” said Bronze, “but the starting XI has changed from game to game and there’s no guarantee of anyone staying in the side with such strong competition for places.”
The 22-year-old defender will be hoping to once again be part of the starting line-up as England step out at the Greenhous Meadow on Thursday, when the aim will be a solid victory to complete their set of five home group games.
Four away fixtures will then remain and Bronze said: “We want to sign off at home with a really good performance that can get the country behind us.
“We feel that we may have lost some of our support after our disappointing performances at the European Championship finals last year, but what we want to do now is build the support back up and do the country proud.”
Pictured – Lucy Bronze in action against Turkey. (Images: tgsphoto.co.uk)
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