Lucy Bronze WON'T retire from international football after England's defeat

Lucy Bronze declared she will not retire from international football despite England’s heart-breaking World Cup defeat.

Olga Carmona’s first half strike gave Spain a 1-0 victory and denied Bronze the chance to win the one trophy that has eluded her.

But the defender, who will be 35 by the time of the 2027 World Cup, insisted she wants to continue playing for her country.

‘I am not retiring from England,’ Bronze said after the game. ‘I think we have a really strong squad.

‘I think we showed that with the fact that we have made a final and nearly won, nearly took it to extra-time with many players from Euros having retired or got injured.

‘The starting XI tonight, in attack especially, was very young and they have got many, many tournaments ahead of them.

‘I am proud of what the girls have achieved, what we have achieved, but I think everybody that knows me knows that I only like gold medals.’

England’s next fixture comes in the Nations League, a competition which will decide which two European teams will join hosts France at next summer’s Olympics.

Bronze said the Lionesses will turn their attention to qualifying for that tournament and said there is no reason why this team cannot have more success in the future.

‘I mean the Olympics is always the goal, even if we would have won this tournament. The Nations League was the goal, the Olympics is the goal.

‘That [the Olympics] is a different team to this England team. The goal is always to win tournaments with this team. We have shown that we can do that. We have made a final today as well. There is no reason why the team can’t go and create more legacies and more winning legacies.’