Houghton stays humble and focuses on semi-final

She is the humble captain of a humble team but Steph Houghton’s performance in the exhilarating quarter-final victory over Norway was one of the great World Cup displays by an England defender

Houghton, of course, would not take individual praise. Not for the fact she saved two certain goals in the second half with perfectlytimed interventions, not because she had played the full 90 minutes when she had been unable to train properly in the build-up.

More than that, she would not accept England had done anything special at this World Cup. Not yet.

“This group’s very humble, very grounded and I don’t think the boss will let us get any further than we are now,” said Houghton. “He’ll let us enjoy it for a bit, he’ll let us see our families but then, as soon as the rest day is over, we go to Lyon. It will be back on it, back on the training ground, back in the classroom.

“We stick to the same process. We analyse the last game that we had, we try and cut out those unforced errors in terms of giving possession away. But at the same time, we’ve got to take confidence in our performance. We got a clean sheet, we’ve just beaten a top Norwegian team, it could have been five, six really. We can take all the positives and enjoy the moment.

“Our intensity in terms of our defending, our intensity when we were countering, they couldn’t live with us and the heart everybody showed. There’s been a lot spoken about us – and from the Norwegians themselves – about how we don’t want to run. Our performance showed what we’re all about. We want to win big football matches.”

They will not come much bigger than the World Cup semi-final, but England have been in the final four before. They want to win the tournament, not collect a runners-up prize. Houghton has been crucial up to this point and, having battled back to fitness to play against Norway, she is already fired up for the next challenge: “I’m fit, I’m healthy and I’m ready to go again.”

Houghton’s partnership with Millie Bright became a foundation for England when they reached the semi-finals of the European Championship two years ago, and has been just as important in France. They are very different characters and players, but that gives them a nice balance. Houghton explained: “We try and do that in our partnerships to make sure no matter who’s on the pitch we do what we’ve just done against Norway.”