Women’s World Cup 2019: Lucy Bronze ‘completely disagrees’ with criticism of England’s penalties

Nikita Parris and Steph Houghton missed three penalties between them during England’s World Cup campaign but Bronze does not believe the blame lies with her teammates

Lucy Bronze believes it is “ridiculous” to point the finger at England’s penalty-taking after their Women’s World Cup ended in the semi-final stages, despite Steph Houghton’s crucial late miss.

England lost a third successive semi-final at a major tournament, being narrowly beaten 2-1 by the United States. Captain Houghton had an opportunity to level from the spot late on but her tame effort was saved.

It was the third penalty England have missed at this World Cup after Nikita Parris failed against both Argentina and Norway. Despite both penalties being well-struck, head coach Phil Neville took Parris off spot-kick duties this week, but Houghton fared no better.

Even so, Bronze refused to blame her captain for the agonising defeat, nor did she think that England’s penalty-taking was an obvious area for improvement. “I completely disagree to be honest,” she said.

“I think Nikita Parris has done some superb penalties and ‘keepers have made some fantastic saves. I think we’re too harsh on the penalty takers sometimes.

“It’s a lot of pressure on a goalkeeper to pull out a save in semi-final of a World Cup, to keep their team on top. That’s unbelievable. The Argentina keeper? Unbelievable save.

“The same for Norway, the ‘keeper’s made a fantastic save. It’s a ridiculous comment to say the penalties aren’t good enough, we’ve scored penalties this tournament and we’ve scored them in the past, I don’t think that’s an issue at all.”

On Houghton, Bronze added: “I’ve spoke to her but Steph knows exactly what we all think of her. She’s our captain and it’s not easy to step up in a World Cup semi-final and to try and score a penalty.

“I think everyone in the nation will take their hats off to her for even stepping up to do that. It’s a huge amount of pressure to take and just because she’s not scored a penalty the blame is not on her, we’re a team and we win and lose together.”