Lucy Bronze: 'We never lost belief in ourselves'

Lucy Bronze says England's belief and perseverance was key to their historic EURO 2025 triumph over Spain in Basel.

The Lionesses went 1-0 down in the first half of the final but came from behind again, Alessia Russo's header forcing a penalty shoot-out that they won 3-1.

Bronze has been a stellar performer at right-back throughout the tournament – and revealed she had been playing through the pain barrier.

She said:  "We never lost belief in ourselves. There was a lot of noise on the outside but we stuck together.  

"To go to extra time back-to-back-to-back is incredible. We give each other energy.

WINNERS 🏅 pic.twitter.com/LV3vTyZ3N2

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) July 27, 2025

"I've played the whole tournament with a fractured tibia but nobody knew. That's why the girls gave me a lot of love after the Sweden game."

Bronze, now of Chelsea, was formerly a team-mate of lots of the Spain players at Barcelona and sympathised with the heartbreaking manner of their defeat, two years on from the Lionesses' loss to the same opponents in the World Cup final.

She said: "To win on penalties is an amazing feeling but to lose on penalties is the worst feeling. 

"They’re great players, they’ve achieved a lot. It wasn’t meant for them today, it was meant for England.

"I don’t think we were thinking too much about the World Cup. We beat them earlier this year.

"We've always shown resilience and fight."