Renard exclusion from France squad a ‘shock’ – Bronze

France’s inclusion of Wendie Renard in their Euro 2025 squad shocked Lucy Bronze, who believes they could be “weakened” without her.

In their first of three group games, the Lionesses take on France in Zurich on Saturday (20:00 BST) for the first of three matches.

Between 2017 and 2020, Chelsea defender Bronze, along with Renard, the team’s captain, won three consecutive women’s Champions League titles.

However, France manager Laurent Bonadei explained why he chose to use “a different selection” and that it was “not made in the spur of the moment” when describing his reasons for rejecting 34-year-old Renard, who has made 168 international appearances and had been captain.

“Wendie and I have a good relationship. She represents the epitome of what I would characterize as a captain figure, according to Bronze.

There was nothing you could fault about Lyon when I was there. She will be devastated if she doesn’t participate in the Euros, I assure you.

The manager made a different decision. Sometimes that’s how football plays. It shocks me greatly.

In England’s opening tournament match, former Lyon team-mate Selma Bacha and Chelsea’s Sandy Baltimore will face off.

The two countries have a close relationship, having first met in Euro 2025 qualifying and winning with a 2-1 victory away from home.

England are looking to win back-to-back games against France for the first time since 1974 despite having won three of their previous six games.

France’s group stage success was capped by Germany in 2009, but they have a strong record. They have won each of their previous five Euros competitions.

Sarina Wiegman, the manager of Lionesses, has won all 12 of her Euros and helped the Netherlands and England to glory in 2017 and 2022.

Both of these countries want to compete in Switzerland, and the group stage fight is regarded as the biggest heavyweight fight ever.

Because we compete so frequently, the teams have a lot of respect,” said Bronze.

France and I don’t necessarily dislike England; rather, they respect us a lot and believe we have a very talented team.

We can immediately pit ourselves against the talented teams. Through the entire tournament, there are no surprises. We are aware of the requirements for you.