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'We can give more' - England star Lucy Bronze gives honest assessment of Lionesses' Women's World Cup campaign after disappointing display against Nigeria

England star Lucy Bronze believes the Lionesses can "give more" after a disappointing display almost saw Nigeria eliminate them from the World Cup.

Bronze admits England need to improve
Lionesses almost lost to Nigeria in last 16
Will face Colombia in World Cup quarter-finals

WHAT HAPPENED? England were second-best throughout their knockout stage meeting with Nigeria in the 2023 Women's World Cup on Monday, with both Ashleigh Plumptre and Uchenna Kanu hitting the bar for the Super Falcons. However, despite being reduced to 10 when Lauren James was sent off, the Lionesses held on and were victorious on penalties to set up a quarter-final meeting with Colombia.

WHAT THEY SAID: Speaking after the game, Bronze told reporters: "We can give more. We’re a fantastic team with highly talented players but the important thing is we got through to the next round. There’s no point in playing our best performances in the first games. We might as well save them for the quarter-finals or further than that.

"We’ve built on every game. We’ve taken something from every game - whether that was the Haiti game that was physical, the Denmark game when we lost our key player in Keira [Walsh], the China game we changed the formation completely, today we had a red card.

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"Everything that has been thrown at us, we’ve dealt with and moved forward. I don’t see many other teams who’ve had that adversity and if they had, I don’t think they’ve managed to overcome the way we have. At the same time, we are not happy with our performances."

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Though they did welcome Walsh back from injury for the Nigeria game, England will need to step up their level without one of their star players in the last eight because of James' sending off. It's another setback that the Lionesses will need to overcome as they prepare to take on a Colombia side that reached last year's Copa America final and beat Germany in the group stages. The South American side overcame Jamaica to reach the next stage.