England women's under-17s head coach Natalie Henderson was "extremely proud" of her players after their 3-0 World Cup semi-final defeat to Spain.

The Young Lionesses were beaten by a goal either side of half-time and a late own goal but were extremely competitive throughout the fixture, creating big chances of their own.

Henderson insisted she had no gripes with the performance.

She said: "Tonight we promised each other that we'd give it a real good shot and we've definitely done that.

"At times we really competed with them and went toe-to-toe with them. That's all we asked of the girls.

"Spain are a world-class team and ultimately they're who we're chasing, they're the team we want to close the gap on. Tonight showed we are closer than where we were in May when we played them. We'll keep trying to close that gap.

"We now have another game against USA in the third-place play-off and we'll be ready to fight for that."

Our #YoungLionesses gave it everything. ❤️

Sunday, we go again for a chance to achieve our best-ever #U17WWC finish. 💪 pic.twitter.com/dDIs8zwC0T

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) November 1, 2024

Defender Rachel Maltby was equally pleased with her side's efforts.

She said: "We competed well with very tough opposition.

"First half we played really well and had quite a few chances. I'm really proud of the performance.

"We can use that to motivate us for the USA game. We want to come home with third."