AFTER a peak of 1.6 million stayed up until the early hours to watch England’s quarter-final win, Captain Steph Houghton voiced her hope yesterday that the Lionesses’ run will inspire a new generation of girls to take up the sport.

Mark Sampson’s promising side became the first England team to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup since the men’s team in Italy in 1990. And men’s team captain Wayne Rooney was one of the first to congratulate the side posting: “England women doing the country proud. Huge congratulations on reaching the semi finals,” on Twitter.

A pair of quickfire first-half goals from the incoming Jodi Taylor and Lucy Bronze stunned the 60,000 Canadian home fans packed into BC Place in Vancouver on Saturday night before a slip-up from keeper Karen Brady saw star striker Christine Sinclair pull one back for the deflated team in red.

Following on from the 2-1 win the Lionesses now face the challenge of reigning champions Japan on Wednesday for a place in the illustrious final against the winner of the glamour tie of the tournament as the world’s top two teams go head to head when the US take on Germany.

“We all mention the Olympics and how much of a watershed moment that was for women’s football in England,” said a buzzing Houghton.

“We always said that we had one aim when we came here, that was to inspire and I think, hopefully, if the mums and dads have let their young girls watch the game late tonight in England I think, hopefully, we’ve got a lot of young girls playing football at an early age and in the next few years we have a stronger English national team.

“That’s the ultimate aim and to keep growing the game. Hopefully, we’ve inspired them girls to do that tonight.”

Manager Sampson praised his “history-makers.”

“The crowd were unbelievable. I’ve never been in a stadium as loud, as passionate for their team as that was and the Canadian team left everything on the pitch, they couldn’t have pushed us any further, we had to really, really dig deep today to get the result we wanted so I’m really proud of my team.

“I’m also really proud of women’s football today, I think it was an unbelievable occasion, a sell-out crowd, everyone loving their team, supporting their team but, again, incredibly proud of the players.

“They’re history-makers again, only the third ever England team to get to a semi-final. We’ve now joined that ’66 and 1990 club,” he said.

After an opening defeat to France the team in white have scooped four back-to-back wins to land their semi-final place and as underdogs Houghton was cautious but confident of England’s chances: “We know it’s going to be a massive game on Wednesday. We’ve got to respect them. They are world champions for a reason.

“Now it’s all about recovering and focusing on trying our best to get into a final.”