Phil Neville laughs off USA’s hotel visit ahead of semi-final

Bemused England boss Phil Neville has laughed off a visit by members of the United States staff to his teams hotel ahead of the Womens World Cup semi-final showdown between the sides.Jill Ellis reigning champions and Nevilles hopefuls meet in Lyon on Tuesday evening, but it is understood a representative from the USA camp visited the teams hotel in a reconnaissance mission ahead of next Sundays final.Asked about the incident, Neville said: Its not a concern. The only thing I would say is its not something that I would want my team ops person doing. Its not something that England would do.Were happy with our hotel. We were training, so I hope they enjoyed our hotel. But its not something that wed do, send somebody round to another teams hotel.England head coach Phil Neville is not concerned by the surprise visit of USA officials to his teams hotel (Richard Sellers/PA)But its their problem. Im sure that Jill probably wouldnt have been happy with that arrangement; I wouldnt have been if that was my team ops person going round, and Im sure that she will be dealing with their infrastructure within their own discipline, probably.Its not an unfair advantage. Itll have no bearing on the game. I actually found it quite funny, I just thought, What are they doing? Its not etiquette really, is it?.England go into the game with a full squad from which to choose and high hopes after drawing with the Americans in March on their way to lifting the SheBelieves Cup.Neville said: You go to tournaments to win. I said earlier in the week about semi-finals nobody cares who loses in a semi-final, its all about winning and my players now want to win, so if we dont get the right result, we will be disappointed.The semi-finals are coming. And we can't wait. #Lionesses pic.twitter.com/PNqA9UI4FU Lionesses (@Lionesses) June 30, 2019We will feel the disappointment and well see that as a failure and thats not me being negative, thats just our expectation, and our belief and our confidence now and our mindset is about winning.Skipper Steph Houghton, part of the side which missed out in agonising fashion in the semi-finals four years ago, is hoping Englands fitness something which was remarked upon by tennis great Serena Williams after she had watched the Lionesses train earlier in the tournament can be a potent weapon this time around.Houghton said: Its been documented well that Serena was at our hotel and a few of the girls were fangirling her. Shes an icon of womens sport and rightly so.Shes won so many medals, so many trophies, best tennis player in the world and for us to see her train as well on the court was an unbelievable experience that nobody really gets the honour of doing.Serena Williams has been full of praise regarding England Women (Steven Paston/PA)For her to say that about us is amazing for this squad. Thats what we want to pride ourselves on, the hard work, the ability to be one of the fittest teams in the world and to be really humble in everything that we do, so for someone of that calibre and so much status to say that about me and my team-mates is unbelievable and Id like to thank her for that.In terms of our fitness as a team in comparison to 2015, the game has moved on so much since then. For us, fitness is a priority to be competing against the best teams in the world and we are one of them and we have shown over this tournament that we can go toe-to-toe with anyone.Against the USA on Tuesday, its going to be our physical attributes that could potentially win us the game.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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