Mature England focused on finding the best route into the knockout stages

England were back basking in the Provencal sunshine yesterday, licking their wounds after Friday’s bruising 1-0 victory over Argentina and looking ahead to Wednesday’s final group stage tie with Japan, and beyond to the World Cup knockout stages, writes Glenn Moore.

England are now qualified, but winning the group, for which a draw will suffice, would set up a last-16 tie against a third-placed finisher.comingsecondwillresult in meeting parsimonious Canada, who have conceded one goal in 11 games this year, beating England 1-0 in Manchester in April, or the Netherlands, who blew away England 3-0 en route to winning Euro 2017. While the players insist they are only thinking one match ahead, Phil Neville and his staff will have been plotting the long game.

Neville, right, has hinted at using every player and wants to “protect” those who have worked hard in the first two matches. Of the five yet to play, Demi Stokes and Toni Duggan, hitherto injured, will feature if fit and the fresh energy of Lucy Staniforth should be deployed. The other two are defender Leah Williamson and back-up goalkeeper Mary Earps. Williamson played against Japan, and played well, when England beat them in the She Believes Cup in March, a win that Lucy Bronze said “will give us a lot of confidence”. Japan had an experimental line-up but Bronze said: “We had a lot of inexperienced players too. We changed it and showed that we can still win. We were 3-0 up in the first half. We know they were missing players, but we know we can do better than before.”

Before is that day in Edmonton when Laura Bassett’s freak injury-time own goal against Japan cost England a place in the 2015 World Cup final. Bronze said: “I was really ill that day and I don’t remember a lot,” she said. “I was throwing up pretty much all day. I think it was food poisoning. That’s why I was subbed. I had cramps.”

The Lyon defender added: “Although it was a disappointing game, it was one where we had to go through that disappointment. We actually deserved to win [but], maybe we weren’t quite ready to reach the World Cup final. Now we are more prepared. We have been to semifinals. Back then it was so new to us, even getting to that semi-final was huge.”

England are a more mature team now. In La Havre on Friday, apart from a period late in the first half when frustration at Argentina’s physical, obdurate defence began to show, they remained patient. And whilst it is true that they only broke through after Argentina committed players forward in a rare attack, it was England’s shift to a passing game that set up Jodie Taylor’s goal.

Playing out from the back cost a goal against Scotland in the opening game but England persisted and after Fran Kirby and Jill Scott combined to win the ball, Jade Moore, Steph Houghton and Abbie Mcmanus played five-yard triangle passes to release Scott on the counter.

“That is a strength of our defenders,” said Houghton. The captain, whose misplaced pass had resulted in Scotland’s goal, added: “We all can play from the back and we have to be brave.”