Kirstie Levell says her England team-mates can bounce back from their European Championship semi-final defeat by Spain.
Lois Fidler’s Women’s U17 team were undone by Andrea Sánchez’s brace and Pilar Garrote’s deflected strike, but they can still qualify for next year’s World Cup by beating Italy in the third-place play-off on Sunday.
The two sides met in the opening group match with the Italians running out narrow victors, the winning strike coming in the 84th minute.
England v Italy
UEFA Women's U17 Championship
Third-place play-off
12pm, Sunday 8 December 2013
Burton Albion FC
Tickets priced £3 adults, £1.50 children
And Levell believes the opportunity to make it to Costa Rica in March will drive England on.
The goalkeeper, who has started all four Euro matches, said: "There was disappointment with the [Spain] defeat but the closeness of the team is excellent and we're just trying to build ourselves up for the Italy game.
"The first game against Italy I don't think we deserved the 1-0 defeat.
"We were so unlucky – the last six minutes and a deflected goal – so we're going to come back fighting.
"[A place at the U17 World Cup] is our end goal, we've been working towards this over a year now, with many training camps – everyone wants it so much."
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