The last time Lucy Bronze played Champions League football at the CFA, home of Manchester City’s women’s team, she left with what she describes to this day as her least favourite memory in a competition she has since won three times.
After leaving City, the full-back was in her first season with Lyon, the reigning European champions, and was back in England to face her former club in a European semi-final.
“We didn't play well, we got a 0-0 draw, and I just thought, 'I look like an idiot',” she tells Goal .
“I'd said to everyone that I had gone to Lyon to win the Champions League and now, potentially, the club that I left was going to knock me out at the first time of trying.
“If your old club knocks you out, you're going to be the laughing stock.”
Things would, however, eventually go Bronze’s way, meaning that for her first European game back at the CFA this Wednesday - the second leg of a round of 32 clash with Goteborg that City lead 2-1 - she is one of the key figures in the club’s pursuit of European glory.
After that goalless draw in 2018, the England international scored the decisive goal in the second leg, sending Lyon to a final where they would beat Wolfsburg 4-1 after extra time.
It secured a first Champions League title for Bronze, with two more to come in 2019 and 2020. In the end, In total she collected nine trophies in three seasons before returning to City from France over the summer.
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“I remember the fourth goal [in my first final],” she explains, this time describing her favourite moment from her Champions League experiences, “Shanice [van de Sanden] got the assist [for Camile Abily]. Shanice, for some reason, ran the other way [to Abily].
“I looked at them both and just looked at the energy in Shanice, and me and her just ran up and down the sideline, celebrating, just the two of us.
“It was a moment that we always spoke about every single year afterwards.”
Bronze’s new team-mates have been keen to hear these tales of triumph since she returned - and she is happy to tell them.
With World Cup-winning duo Sam Mewis and Rose Lavelle also “demanding more” of the players, City have certainly strengthened a squad that has already won six trophies in as many years.
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Those additions could be crucial as Bronze believes that the gap to a team like Lyon, champions of Europe for the last five years, is now simply experience.
“Those Lyon girls know what they're doing each year. There's nothing that will come up and surprise them,” she explains.
“They obviously have a lot of talent, but so many teams now have that talent and have that squad depth. I think the difference is literally that Lyon do have a wealth of experience that no other team has - but you've got to start somewhere.”
The quality and experience throughout City’s ranks is no bad place to start. The mentality that a player like Bronze, who ranked third in this year's Goal 50 , can bring is another huge bonus, too.
“I just always expected that I would win the Champions League,” she says, underlining that winning mindset. “That's going to happen, regardless of anything else, if you want to win it.
“I've got it on my calendar every year. I've got every single game marked out, every single year, I know when the final is, I know where it's going to be played.
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“It's not something I focus too much on, but I always know when it's coming. It's always written in my phone somewhere. That's just something that I got into the habit of doing when I was at Lyon.
“You've got to have aims and goals, so why not do it with all the trophies in your calendar?”
If City do go all the way this year, one of those dates will more than likely involve a clash with Lyon, a team Bronze says she “would just absolutely love to play against”, such would be the quality of the game.
It is two-and-a-half years since City went toe-to-toe with the French giants and came so close to a monumental result. Fast-forward to today, with the club having invested even more in this team, it would be an incredibly exciting clash.
The focus at City may be on securing that place in the last 16 for now, but the Champions League trophy will always hang on the horizon in Bronze’s mind.
“On our day we've got a team that we could put out and we could beat all these top teams,” she adds.
“There's no reason why we can't have aspirations of trying to get to a Champions League final and trying to lift the trophy.”