THERE is no doubt that the Netherlands will have analysed every aspect of England’s game down to the nth degree before tonight's Euro 2017 semi-final clash, but England striker Fran Kirby believes the Lionesses have an ace up their sleeve which the Netherlands can’t possibly get to grips – manager Mark Sampson.

The England boss has presided over an incredible renaissance of the Lionesses, since they left Sweden with their tail between their legs four years ago having been knocked out in the group stages of Euro 2013.

At the 2015 World Cup, he steered them to third place after a narrow defeat in the semi-finals to Japan and now they are the major favourites to become European champions if they can beat hosts Netherlands in Enschede tonight and then win the final.

Kirby is a case study in Sampson’s style. The Reading-born playmaker missed a year through injury and played just a handful of games before the tournament began.

Yet with him in her corner she has become one of England’s leading players, and his description of Kirby as the ‘mini Messi’ of women’s football was proven true by the way she took her goal against Spain in the group stages.

Now England have the hosts in their sights and Chelsea striker Kirby is adamant Sampson will get them through.

“Mark has a really great ability to get the best out of people and to make them feel confident,” she said.

“For us when we first started working as a team there was not a lot of confidence because of the Euros that had just been in 2013.

“So he started to work on our mental strength more than what we could do on the pitch – and I think that is a real sign of how far this team has come, if you ask anyone and they will say we can win the Euros, we have the team to win the Euros.

“A few years ago, that would not have been the conversation and he has that effect on people – not just on the pitch, but also their mindset.

“At the World Cup nobody expected us to get as far as we did, but we changed people’s mindsets and I think we are doing that again now.

“People would have seen we had France in the quarter-finals and written us off but we believed that we could win and we did that.”

England are the heavy favourites to win now, and they have captured the country’s imagination enroute to the last four with 3.3million people turning into watch them beat France in the quarter-finals.

Now they head to Enschede in front of a sell-out 27,000 crowd – but Kirby knows they have the ability to dump the hosts out.

“Playing against the host nation in a semi-final in front of 27,000 fans you can’t ask for much better,” she said.

“We need to deal with the emotions, the pressure and the crowd. It is going to be a full pack of orange so we need to focus on ourselves, and how we can quiet them down. We want to be the party spoilers."

As well as former Royals acce Kirby, there will be three current Reading FC Women players on duty for tonight's semi final.

Jade Moore and Jo Potter will be in the England squad that reached the last four by beating France for the first time in 43 years on Sunday night.

And they will come up against fellow Royal Mandy van den Berg, whose Netherlands side knocked out Sweden in another of the weekend’s quarter finals.

It means the result of tonight’s semi-final between the only two sides with a 100 per cent record in the tournament means at least one Reading FC Women’s player is guaranteed to be involved in the final, with Austria and Denmark set to contest the other semi final.

Moore played the full 90 minutes against the French along with Kirby, while Potter was an unused substitute in Deventer on Sunday night.

England were very much the underdogs against a French team boasting 10 Champions League winners.

But after France had spurned some early chances, Arsenal striker Jodie Taylor broke the deadlock on the hour with her fifth goal of the tournament.

England held on from there to secure a famous win and they are now the highest-ranked team left in Euro 2017.

In addition, Sampson became the first England manager since Sir Alf Ramsey in 1968 to reach consecutive semi-finals at major tournaments, having guided his team to third place at the 2015 World Cup.

Earlier, Holland captain Van den Berg came on at half time against Sweden with her side already ahead through a Lieke Martens free-kick.

They went on to double their lead through Vivianne Miedema to secure an impressive victory in front of a sell-out crowd of 11,106 in Doetinchem to reach the last four.

SSE is an official partner of the England Women’s team and is proud to be the energy behind women's football, supporting the game from grassroots through to international level. Follow us at @YourSSE