England will take on Spain for a place in the Women’s Under-17s World Cup final on Thursday and you can watch it live on the BBC.
Natalie Henderson’s side, who lost 4-0 to Spain in the European U17s final in May, beat Japan in a dramatic penalty shootout to reach the last four.
England, who are competing at an U17s World Cup finals for the first time since 2016, have endured a rollercoaster tournament in the Dominican Republic.
They fought back with 10 players to beat Mexico in their second group match, before substitute goalkeeper Rebekah Dowsett’s shootout heroics against Japan.
But Henderson says her squad are “not satisfied yet” and want to go one step further against Spain.
“There is real pride and emotion at the moment. It is a great achievement for the staff and the players to reach a World Cup semi-final,” she told BBC Sport.
“When we qualified for the tournament, we wanted to compete to go as far as we could. I feel very proud of the journey we’ve been on so far.”
The semi-final will be shown live on BBC iPlayer and on the BBC Sport website and app from 22:45 GMT on Thursday.
Henderson hopes her players will “take away memories they will never forget” in the semi-final but the ultimate goal is to see them break into the senior squad in the future.
The last England Under-17s squad to play in the World Cup finals included current Lionesses Niamh Charles, Alessia Russo, Georgia Stanway, Ella Toone and Lotte Wubben-Moy.
“We think these tournaments and experiences are crucial for their development,” said Henderson.
“We want to be in more major tournaments like this and expose players to what it’s like to participate in them from a pressure perspective and also culturally.
“Those two games [against Mexico and Japan] were probably the two craziest games of football we’ve ever been involved in.
“They showed the true character of this squad, who we are as a team and how much we believe in each other.”
Spain are heavy favourites having comfortably beaten England in the Euros final but Henderson says her side want to “show off on the big stage”.
“A lot of work went into the build-up to the tournament. We have spoken about being united, together, present and enjoying the moments together,” she added.
“We also want to be ruthless in the way we play football and show off on the big stage. They are the values we have in this team.
“We truly believe we can find a way and we have enjoyed riding the challenges together. I know the mindset of the players and they are not satisfied yet.
“We want to keep going as far as we possibly can. As long as every member of staff and player can say they gave it their best shot – that is what we want.”
