Mark Sampson hails 'huge result' after England beat Spain

Fran Kirby gave England an early lead and Jodie Taylor struck a late second to add to the hat-trick she scored in their 6-0 thrashing of Scotland in their opening group game on Wednesday.

England benefited from Italian referee Carina Vitulano's controversial decision to change her mind after appearing to award Spain a penalty for handball as they trailed 1-0 in the 75th minute, but Sampson said he was proud of his players.

"It's a brilliant result, 2-0 against Spain in a game like that, it's a huge result for us," Sampson told Channel 4.

"I'm very proud of the players. I think this will be a night that we'll look back on and think it's been a really big moment for us.

"We've been through a lot of work, and finding a way to win and that's exactly what we had to do tonight - find a way to win."

England had to work harder than anticipated in torrential rain in Breda after Kirby had given them a dream start as technically gifted Spain dominated possession.

"You could see the athleticism of the players towards the end I thought," Sampson said.

"We worked incredibly hard on a sapping pitch, but the last 10 minutes I thought we were the team that started to get a hold of it.

"Overall I'm very proud of the players. It was a very tough game for us. We knew we needed to win to top the group. It's a big win for us."

Sampson, taking charge of his 55th game for England, made a rare decision to field an unchanged starting line-up, but said the whole squad had a part to play in the tournament.

"(Toni) Duggan came on and did a great job for us and she was involved in the second goal and defended admirably in terms of her discipline," he said.

"And for (Isobel) Christiansen to make her tournament debut in a performance like that - we're very proud of that.

"So all the squad have been called upon and all 24 have been great so far."

Sampson admitted there was room for improvement as his side were forced to defend for long periods after giving the ball away too easily.

"I can't remember KB (goalkeeper Karen Bardsley) making a great save," he added. "We were incredibly resilient.

"We would have liked to have had more of the ball of course we would, but they got hold of the ball early.

"Their ability to drop into a back three surprised us a bit and the early goal (for us), I think we just dropped in a bit.

"In the second half we were more efficient. We got up to the ball a bit quicker in their half and got a bit more control on territory."