The defender completed 90 minutes against Les Bleues and earned rave reviews for her performance, although she admits the result was of course disappointing.
Despite the setback, she echoed skipper Steph Houghton’s sentiments, asserting the Three Lionesses should be proud of their display and can bounce back with the two victories needed to go through.
“We have no points but we know: two wins out of two and we are qualified, so it’s fine,” she declared.
“We performed well against France. The result was not the greatest but we still have every chance of qualifying.”
A right-back by trade but admired for her versatility, Bronze found herself thrown into a new position on Tuesday, taking her place at left-wing in a bid to stifle the threat of France’s Élodie Thomis.
With the right-winger receiving no joy down the flank and eventually being replaced, the plan proved successful. Reflecting on her performance, Bronze was pleased - and impressed with her manager’s thinking.
She stated: “It was really good to play - though it was different, as it was a position I am not used to.
“It was a tactical decision and it kind of worked. Mark is very forward-thinking and has a tactical mind.
Thomis was one of their big threats. We knew about her pace and getting the ball to feet. Playing two full-backs out there kind of kept her quiet.
“I found out I was playing in that position a few days before, but we’ve been trying it out in training over the past few weeks so it was not completely new.
“I’ve been working on it a lot. Mark [Sampson] and [goalkeeping coach] Lee Kendall have been working on my positioning. I know we still got beat so the result doesn’t show it - but the performance was positive.
“Just to be here has made all the hard work recovering from injury my worthwhile. To get on the pitch and play a full 90 minutes proved that even more so.
“We have players like myself who can play in different positions and do different things when they are asked, but we will have to wait and see what happens against Mexico.”
The clash kicks off at 9pm BST and will be broadcast live on BBC Three, while we will also have coverage on Twitter and a match report shortly after full-time.
