Wednesday 6 March 2019 18:52, UK
Skipper Steph Houghton says England are worthy winners of the SheBelieves Cup having gone ‘toe-to-toe’ with the best teams in the world.
Tuesday night's 3-0 win over Japan sealed England's first SheBelieves Cup trophy, after beating Brazil in their tournament opener, and drawing against world champions and hosts USA in their second match.
"It's a massive confidence boost. I think for us to go toe-to-toe with the best teams in the world is a credit to the whole squad," Houghton told Sky Sports News the day after lifting the trophy in Tampa.
"Everybody played their part over the three games. It's a tough fixture list in terms of your recovering, your travelling, your training and your playing. It's repeating that for three games.
"So it's kind of like a World Cup scenario for us, and we took it that seriously that we were trying to get everything right in between, and we're sitting here with the trophy after three great performances."
Houghton skippered a Lionesses squad that became the most successful ever senior England team to have played in a major tournament overseas when they finished third at the 2015 Women's World Cup.
This year's World Cup gets underway in France in just three months time and Houghton says improving upon their showing in Canada four year ago remains the Lionesses' priority.
She added: "Having the [SheBelieves Cup] trophy adds that little bit more pressure and obviously people will realise we are a good team. We are third in the world for a reason.
"The main objective that we've got is the World Cup this year.
"And we know that even though we are sitting here with this, we know that we've got three or four months to put a few things right to make sure that we are in the best shape that we possibly can be, and to give players a lot more experience."
