Bronze defends England’s penalty record after costly World Cup semi-final miss

Lucy Bronze has defended Englands penalty-taking after they once again had a spot-kick saved in the Womens World Cup semi-final loss to the United States.The Lionesses had the chance to equalise via a penalty in the 84th minute of the 2-1 defeat in Lyon, but captain Steph Houghton saw her effort from 12 yards kept out by Alyssa Naeher.It was the third time at the tournament that England had failed to convert from the spot, with Nikita Parris, who scored a penalty in the opener against Scotland, being denied by Argentinas Vanina Correa and Norways Ingrid Hjelmseth.What a time to make the @USWNT's first-ever penalty save in a #FIFAWWC match (regular time)! #ENGUSA pic.twitter.com/QcJqxUOPQB FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) July 2, 2019When it was put to Bronze that the penalty-taking had not been good enough, the England full-back said: I completely disagree to be honest.I think Nikita Parris has done some superb penalties and keepers have made some fantastic saves. I think were too harsh on the penalty takers sometimes.Its a lot of pressure on a goalkeeper, to pull out a save in the semi-final of a World Cup, to keep their team on top? Thats unbelievable. The Argentina keeper? Absolutely unbelievable save. The same for Norway, the keepers made a fantastic save.Houghtons 84th-minute penalty was saved against the United States (Richard Sellers/PA)I think its a ridiculous comment to say the penalties arent good enough, weve scored penalties this tournament and weve scored them in the past, so I dont think thats an issue at all.While Houghton said after the match she was gutted and felt she had let the team down, England boss Phil Neville said no blame should be attached to the centre-back.That was echoed by Bronze, who said: Ive spoke to her but Steph knows exactly what we all think of her. View this post on Instagram Heartbroken A post shared by Lucy Bronze (@lucybronze) on Jul 2, 2019 at 3:25pm PDTShes our captain and its not easy to step up in a World Cup semi-final to try to score a penalty. I think everyone in the nation will take their hats off to her for even stepping up to do that.Its a huge amount of pressure to take and just because shes not scored a penalty the blame is not on her, were a team and we win and lose together.England playmaker Fran Kirby said: Were obviously gutted for her and gutted for the loss as well.There isnt any words, absolutely gutted. Proud of this team thank you to everyone for your support and we will give everything one more time in the World Cup pic.twitter.com/MeKwdmWrbc Fran Kirby (@frankirby) July 3, 2019But Stephs a strong character and shell bounce back from this. Shes a great captain, shes a great leader and if anyone will be there for someone, itll be her.So we need to make sure we get around her and make sure that shes in a good space. And she will be, shell come out fighting on Saturday, theres absolutely no doubt about that.Saturday is when England will play for third place, against either Holland or Sweden in Nice.We pick each other up. We go again. We look forward to the play-off and at the change weve made to our nation. At the way you guys have backed us like never before. What an exciting few years we have coming up #BeReady pic.twitter.com/th3r8OqcwG Lionesses (@Lionesses) July 3, 2019Tuesdays dramatic contest against the defending champions saw Christen Press put the United States in front with a 10th-minute header, Ellen White drew things level nine minutes later and Alex Morgan then head home what proved the winner just after the half-hour mark.Midway through the second half, England thought they had equalised through White, only for her finish to be disallowed on a marginal offside call following a VAR check.England were then awarded their penalty via VAR, only for Naeher to deny Houghton, shortly before Millie Bright was sent off following a challenge on Morgan.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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