It had been a long time coming but there it was. Twice. The first time it took just two minutes. A gut-busting Lucy Bronze run beat the Norway left-back, Kristine Minde, and the Lyon defender cut the ball back wonderfully. The waiting Ellen White mis-hit but Jill Scott swept home behind her.
It is such a simple move, and one she does so effectively and so often for the European champions, Lyon. Her swift, sharp delivery is expected by players such as Ada Hegerberg and Eugénie Le Sommer whenever there’s a burst of power from arguably the world’s best right-back.
With nerves high, a semi-final in Lyon against the winners of Friday’s France v USA power-clash on the cards, and the chance to edge closer to a 2020 Olympic qualifying place, the butterflies were well and truly in.
It was apt that it was Bronze who helped settle them. She badly wanted the journey “home” to the Stade de Lyon. And it was equally apt that it would be her link-up play with the new Lyon recruit Nikita Parris for England’s second. It was a formulation that worked so well in the Lionesses’s Group D opener against Scotland. They ran the Scottish left-back Nicola Docherty ragged, so much so she was eventually taken off. Against Norway, the weakness of the full-backs had been identified beforehand and with five minutes of the half remaining Bronze produced a burst of speed and a flick to Parris, again beating Minde, before the forward selflessly swept across goal to the waiting White.
Bronze may draw the plaudits for her role along the entire right-hand side, but it is the captain, Steph Houghton, who falls back to make up for her absence as Bronze powers forward. It is almost automatic, they move as if connected. And in the cool Le Havre air, kindly fighting off the heatwave set to sweep France, they were not alone in their instinctive play. The entire backline, undoubtedly England’s strongest back four, moved as one. There were hairy moments – as there were in the chaos of Valenciennes against Cameroon – but further west these were not defensive errors. Mistakes from the middle, sloppy passes from Keira Walsh, Fran Kirby and Toni Duggan, piled the pressure on a defence with questions to answer. And they answered them.
There had been a feeling that Phil Neville’s defence had yet to face a potent strike force. Scotland’s Erin Cuthbert was the most dangerous they had faced but she was starved of service as the Scots sat deep. Norway’s Isabell Herlovsen and Caroline Graham Hansen offered a sterner test.
There was relief when the team sheet arrived: the centre‑back pairing of Millie Bright and Houghton were both fit to start despite the latter’s bruising encounter with Cameroon’s Alexandra Takounda as their last-16 game ticked to a conclusion. And despite Neville’s insistence that his rotation means any player can slot in in a “seamless transition”. The absence of the captain and her powerful partner would have been a blow regardless.
Every one of the back four shone. The first scent of danger from a Norway corner saw Bright head comfortably clear. Houghton, one on one with the powerful Herlovsen, forced a mistake from the forward for a goal-kick.
Demi Stokes, restored to the starting lineup in place of Alex Greenwood, who scored against Cameroon but looked fragile when under pressure, made light work of the threat of Karina Sævik on England’s left. It was Stokes who raced across to the right to block a goal-bound shot from Chelsea’s new recruit Guro Reiten early on.
With the next goal key when the teams emerged from the tunnel at 2-0, it was Houghton who fought away Graham Hansen when she was clean through and looked certain to score.
With a terrible back pass from Bright to Karen Bardsley finding the keeper caught short by the substitute Lisa-Marie Utland, it was Houghton who stood solid on the line and blasted clear while Bardsley was at sea.
This though, was the Bronze show. Beth Mead, the Arsenal set‑piece specialist, came on in the 54th minute. When she played the ball to a waiting Bronze, in a well‑rehearsed move, on the edge on the area her floor to roof-of-the-net screaming strike put the game to bed. Shortly afterwards she was on hand to hack the ball out for a corner after her left-hand-woman Houghton had misjudged an incoming cross.
This was a statement from England, but a bigger one from their backline. No team has looked infallible in this competition; both the USA and France have had to rely on a hefty helping of luck at times. Belief that England can cause an upset in their Lyon semi‑final will be real.