Jordan Nobbs says that England are ready for the freescoring Japan in the Quarter-Final.
FIFA Women's U17 World Cup
Quarter-Final
12 midnight (GMT), Saturday 8 November 2008
Hamilton, New Zealand
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England Women's U17s skipper Jordan Nobbs says that having faced South Korea in their final group game will be a big help as they prepare to face freescoring Japan in the last eight.
Hiroshi Yoshida's side are the only team with a 100% record in the tournament, having scored 17 goals during their three victories in Group C. But Nobbs believes that the experience of facing Korea will be an advantage for the Three Lions on Sunday.
"South Korea were very quick, very skilful on the ball and terrific dribblers, and I think Japan will be exactly the same," Nobbs told FIFA.com. "That's something we'll need to look out for and we'll come up with a plan on the areas we need to improve to be able to compete."
While the England captain makes it clear that Japan must be respected for their performances, she also feels that the players will be giving everything to make it to the Semi-Finals.
"We've watched some of Japan's games and they have been outstanding," she acknowledged. "But we are ecstatic to be here and we will do everything to make sure we stay a part of this competition."
Lois Fidler agrees that defeat to South Korea could inspire her players to greater heights in the quarter-finals than victory might have done - particularly given the nature of the opponents.
"It should be a massive help to our girls," she said. "They're U17 players, they're learning all the time. And if they can't pick up as many lessons from losing as they can from winning, they're doing themselves an injustice. I certainly hope we'll be better prepared for that style of football after this experience.
"The players are a very honest bunch in their appraisal of matches and they know that we can play a lot better than we did against the Koreans. And we'll need to play better, it's as simple as that. But although Japan have obviously been doing extremely well here, we'll look at them closely and see what ways we can try to cancel out their strengths and maximise ours."