Sue Smith: Comebacks are good, but England must improve

Let’s be honest, we all thought we were going home, didn’t we? The first half of the quarter-final against Sweden when England were 2-0 down was awful. The Lionesses were not good off the ball defensively, really disjointed going forward, and didn’t look like they were creating anything. Watching it, I was thinking: “Oh that’s it, we’re gone.”

But then, seemingly out of nowhere, we managed to find that ability to pull something out of the bag.

I played against Russia at Euro 2009 when we went 2-0 down and turned it round to win 3-2, which was the last time England had overturned a two-goal deficit at a major tournament. I remember the momentum completely shifting.

Even when Russia scored, there was belief we were the better side.

The whole team felt that. It’s an indescribable feeling but when you get that momentum behind you, it is hard to shift.

Lucy Bronze is a player who epitomises that “proper England” performance everyone’s been speaking about. That ability to toughen up, grit it out and dig in for a performance when everyone else thinks you are completely out of it. She was on her haunches at one point! But when the ball came to her at the far post, she was always going to score. Then when she took her penalty, she smashed it down the middle and threw the ball on the floor.

It’s that attitude of “We are going to win this no matter what, we’re going to give absolutely everything.” Of course that’s how it should be when you play for your country but they have this belief:  even when they seem down and out, they’re not.

That mentality comes from the likes of Bronze. She’s always had that about her, she wants to win everything. But that feeds into the other players.

Grace Clinton described her as like their mum, and I like that a lot – it means players like Clinton, who has played only 14 times for England, look up to her and watch how she behaves as the ultimate professional.

A lot of the younger players coming through will have that. Michelle Agyemang is another one of those players – a young kid coming on with absolutely no fear, putting herself about, and getting the equaliser. Sarina Wiegman put her on with the express instruction – “Go on and win us the game” – and she delivered.

Sarina normally comes across as calm but in the huddle at the end, you could see her smiling and doing a bit of a dance. It was like she couldn’t contain herself because it is the ultimate feeling to come back and go win it when you maybe don’t deserve it. You just want that feeling to continue and you want to play again.

But I think Sarina will probably be saying to them they weren’t good enough. If they play like that against Italy in the semi-finals on Tuesday, Italy will punish them. They can’t start the way they started against Sweden.