England Women set for semi test

UEFA Women's European Championship Semi-Final
Venue: Tampere Stadium, Finland Date: Sunday, 6 September KO: 1700 BST
Coverage: Live on British Eurosport, regular updates on BBC Sport website and full report

Williams (centre) celebrates Eniola Aluko's second goal against Finland

England midfielder Fara Williams says the Netherlands will be tough opponents when the sides meet in the semi-finals of Euro 2009 on Sunday.

Williams, 25, will skipper the side in the absence of injured captain Faye White for the game in Tampere.

She told BBC Radio Merseyside: "We know Holland are going to be a tough test.

"If anybody did watch them in their quarter-final against France they will see that they are a good team. Nobody beats France through luck."

Williams added: "They're going to be tough competition for us. I'm sure Hope [Powell] will have us fully prepared and focused for the game come Sunday."

The Everton captain believes her side's 3-2 victory against Finland on Thursday was the best team performance of the tournament so far.

Williams got herself on the scoresheet in the game and she hopes the team can continue to grow in stature with every match.

"We're getting better as the games go on," Williams continued. "Hopefully we'll get better come the game on Sunday and hopefully it will be good enough to get us through.

"We can only build on what we began with, which was a bad team performance against Italy. We've built on that since then."

England will have to cope without influential skipper Faye White after the 31-year-old fractured and dislocated her cheekbone in the quarter-final win over the hosts.

"We didn't know what happened to Faye," said Williams. "It drove us on a bit - to want to do well, not only ourselves, but for her.

"She's our captain and she's led the team well throughout the tournament. For now, whilst Faye gets her injury sorted, we want to do well for her and hopefully we can do it on Sunday."