, says Lucy Bronze
Fit again after injury, Lucy Bronze is available for the Champions League final (Picture: Getty)Having returned to training with the team last week following keyhole surgery on her knee a month ago, Lucy Bronze is now in contention to play in this weekend’s Champions League final. Despite missing the Chelsea game at home due to the surgery, Bronze was still able to be there in the stands at Camp Nou. The plan all along had been that she would be back for the final, and so far it has gone according to plan.
The competition was always a big deal for Bronze in her time at Lyon, where she was fortunate enough to win it three seasons in a row. Now, with the opportunity to win it with a second club in a new country, Bronze is determined to make it happen. She said at the start of the season: ‘We shouldn’t be thinking just about getting to the final, we need to win it.’
Bronze has had some of the best moments and experiences of her life in big games like this. She spoke to Sarina Wiegman ahead of the announcement of the England World Cup squad today but really she just wanted to make sure she was okay.
The buzz of the big occasion is what Bronze craves the most and she feels more confident in that kind of environment. She remembers playing in the 2009 FA Cup final for Sunderland against Arsenal, where she won player of the match and thought: ‘This is for me.’
Now, with Barcelona having already won La Liga and having what Bronze believes is the strongest squad in the world, she is focused on beating Wolfsburg and winning her first European title with Barca and her fourth overall.
The 35,000-capacity Philips Stadion sold out quickly for the Champions League final, showing the appetite to go to the game was obviously there. However, Bronze feels that given how quickly it sold out, maybe they could have played it in a bigger stadium. The final venues are chosen so far ahead of time but she does feel Barca sparked the appeal of staging Champions League games in big stadiums, something everyone is doing now.
Every week, somewhere in Europe, a stadium is full of fans for the women’s game and it’s becoming the norm. Bronze is an ambassador for Team Kenya, who involve entire communities in gender equality so girls in rural Kenya can create their own bright futures – teamkenya.org.uk