Where do you go from a World Cup final defeat?
You go home and reflect. For England defender Lucy Bronze, who scored the 39th-minute opener in Friday’s 2-1 win against Scotland in the first Women’s Nations League (WNL) fixture, you go back to leading by example.
Back, too, was Rachel Daly, restored to the striker role she vacated during the World Cup, with England head coach Sarina Wiegman previously preferring her at left-back.
Friday’s match marked the start of a new cycle for England, but things here were familiar. Bronze rising at the far post to finally convert a chance. Daly dipping her shoulder before delivering a perfect assist for Lauren Hemp to power home just before half-time.
Bronze scoring the opener (Harriet Lander – The FA/Getty Images)
“I’ve been practising that all World Cup and never scored it,” Bronze said of her opener. “Then, the first game back, we scored exactly that.”
Of the transitional England side who reached the World Cup final against Spain on August 20, Daly and Bronze, at 31 apiece, are two members of the squad old enough to appreciate that their participation in the 2025 European Championships, hosted by Switzerland, is far from guaranteed.
But, given their character, you would not bet against them. Bronze’s Cruyff turn in the Scotland penalty area was a reminder that the old can feel like the new.
Given their performances on Friday, you sense Wiegman is still planning around them. “We’re working to keep (Bronze) fit, so we’ll see how far that gets,” said Wiegman, before adding with characteristic levity: “But it’s up to her also.”
England were not perfect — they tired badly in the second half — perhaps to be expected given the World Cup final had only taken place 33 days prior, but Friday evening showed that the World Cup, if not a beginning, was certainly not an ending.
Take the night’s 3-5-2 formation — the same England played during the tournament’s latter stages, reacting initially to Keira Walsh’s knee injury. There had been a theory that wing-backs were a tournament quirk, adopted as a stop-gap measure for knockout football and that Wiegman would return to her favoured 4-3-3 formation.
England’s starting XI was one which could have lined up with either a back four or five due to the versatility of players such as Alex Greenwood, Jess Carter, Chloe Kelly, and Daly.
Alex Greenwood (Harriet Lander – The FA/Getty Images)
Wiegman opted to retain the 3-5-2 — possibly with Scotland’s 4-4-2 in mind. The 6-1 win over China in the group stages of the World Cup demonstrated how width could play with that formation’s rigid lines like a marionette’s strings.
There was progression as well. In many ways, England struggled to find fluidity in the World Cup — that China game aside — but the opening 20 minutes was as stylish as they have looked since the last Euros.
Kelly did not start a game at wing-back this summer — Daly was needed up front to fill in for the absent Alessia Russo — but showed innate understanding with Greenwood. In attack, Kelly played as a conventional left-winger, with left-sided centre-back Greenwood then becoming an attacking left-back, clipping in crosses from the half-spaces.
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On occasion, she inverted to allow Manchester United midfielder Katie Zelem into that area, covering in behind — Zelem’s cross from that position created Bronze’s goal.
Few teams in world football can switch fluidly between a back five and a back four in-game — England’s ability to make that adjustment is a major boon to their chances at Euro 2025.
Wiegman’s major decision on Friday — the same one she faced the night before the World Cup final — was whether to start Lauren James or Ella Toone at No 10.
One of the stories of the tournament was James’ emergence at international level, scoring three goals and providing three assists in the group stages. Her petulant red card and subsequent two-game ban for stamping on Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie underscored that importance — an England team without James became a national crisis.
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Before that sending off, James had assumed centrality to the England team — here was a player to orbit around.
She returned for the World Cup final but Wiegman opted for the safer option of starting Toone, who had scored in the semi-final against Australia in James’ absence. Wiegman’s decision to introduce James at half-time against Spain was an acceptance that her omission was an error.
James has scored four goals for England (Naomi Baker – The FA via Getty Images)
On Friday, after just 10 minutes, James drove forward and tried to play Daly in through the middle. Later, she dispossessed Rachel McLauchlan and curled a shot inches wide. Either could have been a replica of what we saw in Sydney, Brisbane, or Adelaide.
Her move to striker for the closing stages was another reminder of that potential — with a late goal disallowed for offside after bullying her way through the Scottish defence.
The World Cup was the start of James’ England team. This cycle will be — but for injury — its continuance.
It may be James’ team on the pitch, but in the stands? Well, that’s a different matter.
With 10 minutes left, almost 42,000 were chanting one name: “Mary (Earps), Mary, Mary.”
Bronze may be the local in this team, but this crowd seemed more intent on seeing the 2023 World Cup Golden Glove winner and newly crowned England Women’s player of the year.
Earps with the player of the year award (Naomi Baker – The FA via Getty Images)
Fresh from saving a penalty in the World Cup final, Earps’ first touch since Sydney was greeted by a Wearside roar. In the 20th minute — the crowd’s support was rewarded — a strong hand from Earps denied a powerful close-range Caroline Weir effort.
Ahead of the World Cup, Earps revealed her disappointment that fans were unable to buy the Lionesses goalkeeper shirt, with Nike choosing not to sell the replica online or in stores. It became a touchstone — a relatable sign of the inequality still faced by elite players.
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Nike U-turned earlier this month but stated they would only sell her shirt in “limited quantities”. The support for her tonight did not feel like a celebration of that small victory, but almost like that of a campaign, a first rally on English soil, the next staging post of a battle begun in Australia.
In many ways, it is unsurprising that so much felt familiar. Friday’s match was just one month and two days after England returned from Australia — in a quirk of the women’s football calendar, before the domestic season even began.
“We’ve only just left each other,” said centre-back Carter. “We haven’t had to start all over again and build those connections all over again.”
But there were drawbacks. England were flat in the second half, while the Scottish players, who had both a full pre-season and a full break having not qualified for the World Cup despite being ranked 23rd in the world by FIFA, grew into the match, beginning to win the ball with their press and stymie the hosts out wide.
“This is my first year of having back-to-back tournaments and then the international fixtures so soon,” Carter added. “To have a tournament like that, of that intensity, and to be ready to go again is really difficult.
Jess Carter (Harriet Lander – The FA/Getty Images)
“It’s mentally and physically exhausting, then coming back and some (players) only having a week off — which is ludicrous — and some only having two, it’s really tough to reset and get ready to go again in that time. Everyone is just doing the best they can to get back to a top level.”
England briefly reached that level before they tired in the second half. This was the first round of fixtures in the WNL, aimed at giving players more competitive games. Playing these fixtures now, before the domestic season starts and two weeks after the first UEFA Champions League qualifiers, feels deeply irresponsible given what players have already gone through.
Friday evening was a story of World Cup carry-over — in style, in spirit, in personnel — but these were the same exhausted bodies, too.
(Top photo: Harriet Lander – The FA/Getty Images)
