England’s players now expect the target to be tournament victory, Gareth Southgate revealed, as the team stand on the brink of Euro 2024 qualification. The manager said that lifting the trophy was now the aim in a team meeting at the start of this international break, and a lot of it was to do with how the squad has evolved over the past six years. England play Ukraine in Wroclaw on Saturday and victory could see them qualify this week depending on other results. With qualification already virtually guaranteed, though, it is the trophy itself they are aiming for. “I think now they need that challenge,” Southgate said. “The players don’t want us to come in and be talking differently, and we’ve got evidence over a long period of time that we should have that belief. Of course, you’ve got to go and deliver it and a lot can happen in terms of availability of players and everything, but for us that has to be the longer-term aim.” Southgate pointed to how even the level in training is always top level, and they never have to be told to lift it. “There is definitely belief. They definitely have huge desire. They have had a lot of success at club level and for a lot of them the missing piece is something with England which they know would be bigger than anything else they have achieved. The whole group are determined on that. They are really responsive and I can't speak how highly we feel to be able to work with them every day. We never have to walk on the training pitch and criticise the levels or question the attitude towards the training. And so the key is to transfer that on to the pitch. We have to do that tomorrow night. “We are pleased the mentality of the players has been exceptional and they are grasping the challenge and grasping our push that we have got to get better and better. They have started well in this group and the positive thing is that it is 12 points but we cannot just rest on where we are and we have to keep improving as a team. So, tomorrow is another chance to take another step forward and for other players to come into the side because we are missing three or four from the last couple of games.” While the inclination is to cast Euro 2024 as a last chance for this squad, Southgate doesn’t see it like that, due to how it is evolving. “I think the nice thing is that, some players, it will be probably their last chance to win something, some will be at their peak, and some have still got space to grow. I don’t see the team falling off a cliff after the next tournament. There’s enough youngsters that still have their best years ahead of them, in fact. So it’s a good balance.” Read More Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham is one of a kind, says Gareth Southgate Harry Kane hopes for club and country delight in bid to end trophy hoodoo Gareth Southgate won’t be swayed by ‘external reaction’ over Jordan Henderson

Alex Greenwood claimed she “cannot put it into the words”, so she just kept repeating the words that made her feel like that. “We’re in a World Cup final.” “I just keep having to say it,” she laughed. It is a glorious fact worth actually reflecting on, even as thoughts quickly turned to Sunday, what next, who starts, whether Lauren James comes in. If actually winning the World Cup is the great ambition of any career, the final itself is the great stage. Those who step onto the pitch will leave their own mark on history, the very line-ups part of the record that makes football so rich. “We wanted to take England and women’s football to a new level and we have certainly done that over the last 12 months,” Ella Toone said. They’ve taken it all to the highest level for the very first time. That is worth celebrating, as Sarina Wiegman and the players insisted they would be doing. The squad were loving it out on the pitch but, as the Stadium Australia sound system played the Fifa-approved songs, they quickly realised they wanted to get into the dressing room and play their own music. This was the overriding feeling as they then made their way through the mixed zone. “We will celebrate tonight, I’d rather be in the changing room than talking to you lot,” Toone smiled. Everything they said still captured all it means. Some of them might have been cliches, but they’re cliches for a reason. They’re just what comes to mind as you try to make sense of something that goes beyond your imagination; your hopes. “It’s unbelievable, this is what dreams are made of,” Chloe Kelly said. “It is history,” Lucy Bronze added. Toone, meanwhile, graciously spoke a lot despite pleading she was so eager to get away. “This is going to be the biggest game of our careers.” That’s apt, because this - to quote their manager - has been a team that has grown with this World Cup. That is the major theme of, and explanation for, England’s historic run to the final. Performances have gotten better. Key players, and especially the attackers, have found form. Solving so many problems has honed the team. It meant they were supremely primed for what was supposedly their biggest test so far, a semi-final against a fine Australia in front of a fervent home crowd. There was even the shock of Sam Kerr’s thunderbolt, and a brief period where it seemed like it could all turn. Not a bit of it. Weaker sides, or even previous England teams, might well have wilted at that point. England turned it into their second biggest win of the World Cup so far, three of their attackers fittingly scoring again. “We just have this belief, nothing fazes us,” Toone added. “We face a lot of challenges this tournament and we have come through every one of them.” Lucy Bronze echoed that. “This tournament we’ve had so many things go against us, red cards, key players getting injured before the tournament, during the tournament, going a goal down in the last game, going against the host nation, everyone’s throwing everything at us including the kitchen sink. And we’ve just won games.” The variety of ways they have to win was pleasingly followed by the variety of the goals. One was just a straight contender for goal of the tournament, even as it swerved into the top corner, a moment of pure quality. “Honestly, that’s the best shot I’ve hit in my life,” Toone said. The second was a classic piece of opportunism, if from a rudimentary approach. Lauren Hemp had to be there, though, just as she was almost everywhere throughout this semi-final. “She has been like that the last few games,” Toone said. “She is just a nuisance. She runs in behind, she comes to feet, she is fast and she is strong. I think she would be a nightmare to play against and she has shown that today with a goal and an assist too . But it’s a team performance, we all dug deep.” The last from Alessia Russo was a classic striker’s finish, after some deft play from Hemp. It all makes it very difficult for Wiegman to bring Lauren James back in. This has been another irony of the World Cup, that shows how well England have adapted. Wiegman generally doesn’t like to change a team that works, but has been forced to do so at pretty much every step. Now, as the path clears to the grand stage, she will surely keep it as is. James might even be better value as a potential game-changer to come on. Even someone as meticulous and forward-thinking as Wiegman, however, admitted that was something to consider tomorrow. Now was the time to just be happy. Hence there was a joyous response when Greenwood was asked about previous semi-final disappointment in 2015 and 2019, and how England had never previously got this far. “That’s something we don’t have to think about any more.” There was now only hope, ambition, dreams coming true. “I’ve always said the one thing I’ve wanted for England is to get a star above my crest,” Bronze said. “The men have it and we don’t, so finally we can share the same crest.” Read More Sensational England capitalise on Sam Kerr’s missed moment to make World Cup history How England deployed dark arts and cool heads to silence Australian noise Sarina Wiegman: Inside the ‘genius’ mind behind England’s run to the World Cup final Lionesses celebrate reaching World Cup final – Wednesday’s sporting social Lauren Hemp hails ‘special’ England as Ella Toone toasts ‘best shot’ of her life Sarina Wiegman v Jorge Vilda – a look at the coaches in Women’s World Cup final

Dina Manzo's now-husband, David Cantin, was assaulted outside a New Jersey strip mall on July 18, 2015

While the cause of the fire has not been determined, observers have pointed to downed power lines, sputtering fire hydrants, and emergency alarms that sat silent as factors that hampered the response to the deadly blaze.

By Marco Aquino LIMA Copper miners in Peru, already battling political uncertainty and regular protests, say they have

False and misleading claims about the war in Ukraine are being widely shared.

This comes after Michael Strahan playfully sat on Robin Roberts' lap after interrupting her on live TV

New Zealand batsman Daryl Mitchell on Sunday said he was proud of his team's bowlers for putting up a fight in their World Cup loss to an India side...

As per a preview, Sean McLaughlin is about to confront Charity Lawson about their relationship status in an upcoming episode

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda suggested it’s possible to start normalizing monetary policy if the BOJ becomes

Basketball player for his high school in Alabama, Caleb White, reportedly passed away after collapsing post a school workout

Italian authorities handed over the ancient tablet to Iraq after more than four decades.