Liverpool Ladies midfielder Fara Williams is hoping to inspire England to victory over France in their opening Women's World Cup clash in Canada on Tuesday evening.

The game kicks off at 6pm BST and England's most-capped player will be a key figure as Mark Sampson's side look to make a big impression in their first outing of the tournament.

Williams and co suffered a 3-0 defeat by the French back in November but will hope for a good start in Group F ahead of further fixtures against Mexico on Saturday June 13 and Colombia on Wednesday June 17.

And Williams insists there is no reason why she and her teammates can't kick things off with a win.

"You have to believe you can win the tournament," she said.

"I've always wanted to win a trophy as an England international. Getting to the final of the European Championships in 2009 was probably one step further than we thought we'd achieve, but who wouldn't want to win a World Cup or a European Championship?

"We have to be realistic, though, and we've certainly got to start the group well. France is our first game and we've never beaten them, but we're well-placed as a squad to really give them a game. If we can take points at the start of the group stages that will give us confidence going into further matches.

"In my two World Cups we've reached the quarter-finals, so I don't think we should look past that for now.

"First and foremost we have to look to get out of our group and then the preparation for the knockout stages is always different.

"In the group stages you can set targets for points you want to achieve, but in the knockout stage they are one-off games and there is a completely different mindset and approach.

"I'd love to get past the quarter-final stage. I've never done it and it's something that all the girls and Mark want to achieve."

In terms of the likely winners of the tournament, Williams believes a number of teams will fancy their chances of glory in Canada.

She added: "France are one of the toughest teams I have played against, but in tournament football they never seem to progress to the latter stages. I don't know whether it's fatigue or the pressure gets to them, but they never seem to push on.

"Even in the Algarve Cup in March, I thought they had a good chance but they lost in the final.

"America will be one of the teams to chase as they always turn up in tournament football and know how to win.

"Japan are an impressive technical team too and fully deserved to win the World Cup in 2011 when [midfielder] Homare Sawa had an incredible tournament.

"So if I'm looking outside ourselves, I'd probably go for Japan, America and, as underdogs, France."

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