Spain's Monserrat Cruz celebrates her first-half strike

England, who needed a win to advance, faced an uphill task after falling behind to a Monserrat Cruz goal after nine minutes.

Mel Clewlow gave them hope with a goal six minutes from full-time to ensure a tense finish.

Clewlow saw another late effort saved as Spain advanced to the last four.

After going a goal down early on, England, with captain Kate Walsh back in the line-up after missing two matches because of a knee injury, stepped up the pressure in the second half.

Rotterdam's Helen Grant missed a great chance to equalise in the 55th minute when she failed to get a touch on a bobbling ball which came through the circle to her five yards out.

Four minutes later Grant had the ball in the net after breaking through a couple of tackles but her effort was disallowed for an infringement.

England will now go into the play-offs for 5th to 8th place where they will first face Japan on Friday.

Coach Danny Kerry said he was bitterly disappointed with the result and the way Spain had set up to frustrate them from the start.

"This is probably one of the lowest points of my life," he said.

"I'm very upset and I can't describe the frustration the players, the coaching and management team feel. People who are not involved in top-level sport will not understand how low we feel.

"We struggled to break Spain down - we don't have the skill sets yet to unlock teams who are unwilling to play hockey and that is pretty much why we have a lot of pressure but don't turn teams over yet.

"Picking up the players after this will really define everything about us."

In the day's other games, Australia, World Cup winners in 1994 and 1998, finished top of Pool B with an emphatic 3-0 win over Argentina and will face Spain in the last four.

Argentina will take on the Netherlands, who maintained their unbeaten run with a 0-0 draw against Olympic champions Germany.