Duggan delights with licence to thrill

England's attacking vim brought a standing ovation after their 3-0 semi-final victory over Switzerland set up a final date with Sweden for her 18th birthday but despite scoring two goals and teeing up the other, Toni Duggan says this team really do build from the back.

Shared credit
England's seven goals in the group stage were shared around but there is only so long you can keep a striker of Duggan's quality quiet, and Switzerland bore the brunt. Having struck in the 3-0 opening-day win against Sweden she doubled her finals tally just before the half-hour. It was, she said, "an amazing feeling" but she was not done. Having "put one on a plate" for Isobel Christiansen with an exquisite cross, she rounded off the win after half-time, latching on to a long ball and coolly slotting home. "I was made up as that's my job as a striker," she said, "but really I've got to congratulate the whole team because defensively we were superb. We set out to keep them quiet as we knew how strong they were up front. The defence was amazing."

Eight clean sheets
That opinion was echoed by manager Mo Marley. "We defended fantastically as a team," she said. "You've got to give credit to the centre-halves; they had a specific job to do and rose to the challenge – they were outstanding. As were the team as a whole. When you defend well it gives you the licence to get forward." Keeping the irresistible Ramona Bachmann quiet did not come without its scares, but an eighth successive clean sheet is indicative of England's defensive steel – another in the final and they will become the first ever to go through this tournament unbreached. "We've got the fine details right," said Marley. "That's the difference between success and failure."

Disappointment
Duggan knows all about that fine line, and is determined to end up on the right side of it for once in Borisov this evening. She was part of the England team knocked out of last year's group stage by Sweden, enduring more frustration at November's FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup when a 3-0 defeat by the United States brought an early end for Marley's team. "The setback in the quarter-finals against the US has made us more determined here," said Duggan, scorer of two of England's four goals in Chile. "We felt we had to come and make our mark. We have to be even stronger than ever."

Neutral support
That hunger, emphasised by Duggan and Marley, has perhaps been further spiked by Everton LFC's final-day league disappointment when a 1-0 loss at home to Arsenal LFC allowed the Gunners to pip them to the title on goal difference. In Belarus England have not offered even a glimmer of hope, their brand of fluid attacking play winning over the locals – as they bade farewell to their adopted home of Molodechno the crowd, some painted head to toe in the Saint George's Cross, rose in appreciation. "It's always good to have the crowd on your side and it's perhaps a compliment for the attractive football we've been playing," said Duggan. "We've given them something to cheer about and hopefully we'll have more support in the final." If they play like they did against Switzerland, England probably will.