Ellen White says the England squad will rally themselves ahead of Saturday’s World Cup third place play-off.
The Lionesses missed a chance to appear in the World Cup Final, following their heart-breaking defeat to USA on Tuesday night after an enthralling semi-final in Lyon.
Top scorer White netted her sixth goal of the tournament in the first half to equalise Christen Press’s opener, before USA captain Alex Morgan glanced home what proved to be the winner shortly afterwards.
That didn’t tell the full story though, as White saw a second-half effort ruled out for offside before being fouled in the later stages to win England a penalty, which was unfortunately missed by Steph Houghton.
And while the new Manchester City striker couldn’t hide her disappointment at missing out on Sunday’s showpiece, she’s keen to match England’s third place finish from 2015.
"Obviously, I'm devastated not to get to the Final but all I can feel is pride for my team-mates,” she said.
"The USA had an amazing match, but we couldn't quite match them and while I'm disappointed with that one offside [goal], I'm just proud to be English really.
"We've got such an unbelievable squad with so much belief going into this game and throughout the tournament.
"We look forward to the third place game now.”
Phil Neville and his squad will now head south to Nice, where they will finish their tournament where they started it against Scotland last month at the Stade de Nice.
With three days to prepare for that game, against either Netherlands or Sweden, former Arsenal, Birmingham City and Notts County ace White says the group will be ready for action.
They’ll be without Millie Bright, who is suspended following her late sending off on Tuesday, and White says the squad will also be there to support their skipper Houghton following her spot-kick miss.
"It takes a lot of courage to step up and take a penalty, and that happens, keepers save penalties,” she added.
“Steph’s our leader and Millie’s had a great tournament too so we'll rally around them and get ourselves ready for Saturday.”
