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England head coach Phil Neville says his team want to win bronze and end the Women’s World Cup on a high despite being “sick” of losing semi-finals.
After losing to the defending champions USA in the last four, England now play Sweden, who lost to the Netherlands, in the third-place play-off.
The Lionesses are looking to matching their best finish at a World Cup after coming third in Canada in 2015.
“We want to go away with something to show for the hard work,” said Neville.
“I want to be on my sun lounger next week, happy that we’ve finished a tournament well and not finish on two defeats.”
When asked how important it was for his team to win a major tournament in the near future, he said: “We’ve had a lot of people telling us about inspiring. But I think the real inspiration is winning gold.
“We’ll continue to strive for that. We’ve been soul searching about what it takes to win. The players have realised we need to kick on.
“We’re all sick of losing in semi-finals, we’re all sick of people applauding us for finishing third or fourth. That’s not being disrespectful; that’s the truth and it hurts.”
Neville said he would pick his strongest side to face Olympic silver medallists Sweden, but he will be forced to make changes after defender Millie Bright’s sending-off against the USA on Tuesday.
The England boss confirmed forward Karen Carney will play a part, in what will be her 144th and final cap after announcing her retirement from football on Friday.
‘Sweden will be hurting too’
This will be the first meeting between England and Sweden at a World Cup, but they have played each other 17 times before with the Swedes only losing twice.
Peter Gerhardsson’s side finished second in Group F, behind the USA, and beat Canada and Germany in the knockouts before losing in extra time against the Netherlands.
They have finished third twice before, in 1991 and 2011, and were losing finalists against the Americans in 2003.
“The game we played against Sweden in November was the game where we were beaten the best,” said Neville of their 2-0 friendly defeat last year.
“It’s a great barometer for us, in terms of the challenge ahead, looking at whether we can beat teams like Sweden.
“Like us, they are consistently challenging to try to get over that line to win tournaments and they will probably be hurting like we are after their semi-final.”
Can White win the Golden Boot?
England striker Ellen White is currently tied with the USA’s Alex Morgan in the race for the Golden Boot, both of them moving up to six goals after scoring in their semi-final meeting.
If successful, the Manchester City forward would become the first Englishwoman to finish as top scorer at a World Cup.
Neville was questioned as to whether he would put in-form White on penalty duty, given his side have missed all three spot-kicks – taken by Steph Houghton and Nikita Parris – during the tournament.
“If she’s on the pitch, I don’t see her taking penalties,” he said. “We’ve got to back the process we’ve spent all our time on.
“My gut feeling is that there will be others on the pitch who have a better record than her.”
