We are so close, now go out and deliver – Neville issues England rallying cry

Phil Neville says Tuesdays Womens World Cup semi-final against the United States is a game England have to win and is confident they will.The Lionesses will be in the final of the competition for the first time if they can get past the defending champions at Lyons Groupama Stadium.England were beaten in the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup and Euro 2017.Time to be brave Final training ahead of our @fifawwc semi final: complete. pic.twitter.com/QzYCPKqIq1 Lionesses (@Lionesses) July 1, 2019Neville, who succeeded Mark Sampson as boss in January 2018, said: I think were at that moment now where we cant hide away from the fact that getting to a World Cup final is so close.Weve spoken long and hard about this for the last 12 months, about getting to this moment and delivering.What I want my players to do is realise they are so close and that we have to go out there and deliver. Losing in a semi-final will mean nothing to me. We have to win.Every single training session, every single meeting, weve spoken about winning. Every five-a-side we have, winning is the most important thing. We take pictures of the winning team and the rest of the players have to watch, because its about winning and thats the mentality weve brought in.Earlier this year England won the four-team SheBelieves Cup for the first time, a campaign that included a 2-2 draw with hosts the US.And Neville said: SheBelieves was my big moment, where we had to get on that platform and hold that trophy, get that medal around your neck.My first one (trophy as a Manchester United player), I won the league at Middlesbrough and I wore my medal for the next two or three days, because you think, I want this again, and the best want it again and again.Phil Neville and captain Steph Houghton celebrate Englands quarter-final win over Norway (John Walton/PA).My players now have to become serial winners, like the USA. Weve been a semi-final team and now we have to make that next step and become a final team.The 42-year-old added: We have gathered momentum, and now the players have to go out and deliver.This is the moment I believe that I was brought into the job for. And I believe my philosophy, my values, the way I am, will get us that victory. Neville says he knows his players are ready because of the look in their eyes.Theyve got ice running through their veins, he added.And he has spoken about the sense of togetherness that he can smell in the group, with Januarys training camp in Qatar vital to that.Ive played in successful teams and you smell it, Neville said.Phil Neville praised the togetherness in the England squad (Richard Sellers/PA).When dinner finishes and youre playing in teams that are not together, they go up to their rooms. My players sit around the eating room, playing music, laughing, joking, and you just think, Weve got something here. Tomorrow night we need to prove that.We had a real big moment when we got beaten by Sweden (2-0 last November). My Christmas was ruined because of that game. It wasnt the performance of losing, it was the fact I didnt have that smell.We took them to Qatar and we literally got them together. We took them to the desert, we had a night out, the players took me out for my birthday. That particular night was the moment when I turned to my assistant (Bev Priestman) and said, Weve got it now, because we came together.Sweden was the best thing that ever happened to us because it kicked us up the backside. Then we went to Qatar and came together as a team. We laid everything on the table. There was a lot of honest conversations and we came out of Qatar and won SheBelieves. And from then on weve been like a steam train.When it was put to Neville that honest conversations could go one of two ways, he said: But when the common goal, the common vision, is winningWe have a three-year plan win the World Cup, win the Olympics, win the Euros and when the common vision is the same and the agreement is we want to create a legacy and win a World Cup then everything else falls into place.If the players didnt have that belief, if they thought a semi-final was their utopia, we would have left them off the journey.But the common goal is now put egos to one side, individual goals and Golden Boots. Its just about winning.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){

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