Women’s World Cup game-changing moments No 6: England in 2015

Laura Bassett was in tears after a late own goal in the semi-final but this was the year England’s women captured the nation’s imagination

For England, as it so often does, it ended in tears, but before the grief came glory. Unfancied, underestimated, they recovered from narrow defeat to France in their opening game to ride a wave of 2-1 victories to the 2015 World Cup semi-finals, where they would take on the reigning champions, Japan. Back in England, interest had blossomed: all their games except the second, against Mexico, were watched by more than two million people. In Canada, the squad spoke of being inundated with messages of support.

“At the start of the tournament people were used to English football failures in major tournaments,” said the right-back Lucy Bronze. “We were always being lumped in with the men. It was just a case of here we go again whenever we went into one. We wanted to change that. We didn’t want to be another English football team that let the nation down. We wanted to do the nation proud and I think that’s why people are jumping in now, because we have made the country proud.”

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from Football | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jun/27/womens-world-cup-game-changing-moments-no-6-england-in-2015