Rivalhood: Bayern's Georgia Stanway and Barcelona's Lucy Bronze on being opponents and friends

"The word 'rivalry' has just got such a negative connotation, when it's actually a good thing," Bayern's Georgia Stanway said as she and Barcelona's Lucy Bronze discussed their long, combative friendship.

Team-mates for England, the two players first met when Stanway joined Manchester City from Blackburn Rovers; Stanway remembers first seeing Bronze when she returned to the club following the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup finals. "I was starstruck," she explained. "Come on, I was 16 at the time!" Bronze also clocked her new team-mate. "I just remember you being a scrawny little kid," she said. "With a big smile on your face."

The duo's paths diverged when Bronze left City for Lyon in 2017, but they were fated to meet again in the 2017/18 UEFA Women's Champions League semi-finals. Bronze did not go easy on her old team-mates, netting the only goal of the two-legged tie and putting in a terrific performance. "You scored against us! And you played unreal against us," Stanway said.

However, if Stanway remembers how well Bronze played against her side, she is well aware that it was not necessarily anything personal, and that friendships were only on hold until the final whistle. "We're both so competitive," she said. "So we'll just do whatever it takes, no matter who it is. And then at the end be like: 'Alright, where's Lucy?'"

At the core, the two players have huge respect for each other, and Bronze admitted that she saw a lot of herself in Stanway. "You're the player who I see myself in the most," the 32-year-old said. "I appreciate so much the way that you play but the way that you are on the pitch. And I look at you and I think: 'Wow, that was me when I was 24.' I wanted to do everything. I wanted to tackle everyone."

The pair still see each other regularly on international duty and could meet again if Bayern (who Stanway joined in 2022) run into Barcelona in the latter stages of the competition. If they do, Bronze for one will be expecting Stanway to be at her fiercest. "I would expect you to go harder on me than you did on the other players," she said.