Phil Neville said he wanted “smiles not tears” after England’s third successive semi-final defeat in a major tournament was leavened by the sense that the Lionesses are extremely close to catching up with the world’s best.

“I’ve no regrets and I have to say it was the most enthralling 90 minutes I’ve been involved in as a manager,” said England’s coach after the spirited 2-1 defeat to an admittedly superior USA team.

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Refusing to be cowed, his side missed a late chance to take the game into extra-time when Steph Houghton, their captain and key centre-half, had a penalty saved. “Steph was the best penalty-taker on the pitch,” said Neville, defending the decision not to give the kick to a striker. “We’ve worked on that decision for six months but you score some and you miss some. We’ve shown we’re getting close to the US, to the defending champions, we’re knocking at the door.

He raised a smile by entering the post match debrief and declaring: “I need a beer – shall we share?” but said it would take 48 hours for his Lionesses “to get over their disappointment” before preparing for Saturday’s third place play-off in Nice against either the Netherlands or Sweden.

“No words can make the players feel better but the way they played filled me with pride and joy,” said Neville. “I wanted to see smiles not tears. But we now have to produce a performance in Nice. I’ve moved on already and I’m already looking forward to Saturday’s game.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Steph Houghton’s penalty is saved. Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA

If his side replicate similar effort to last night they will be in with a chance. “We said before the game we wanted to leave our hearts and souls on that pitch and they did, they gave everything,” said Neville, who saw Millie Bright sent off deep in the second half for a second yellow card and Ellen White have a goal disallowed for the tightest of offsides. “We’ve gone toe-to-toe with the best team in the world, the USA showed great experience at the end with taking the ball into the corner.

“We went down to 10 and we’ve just probably run out of steam but I asked them to play football the way that I wanted them to play and they did. We’ve come to this tournament, we’ve done our very best. We’ve not left anything in that dressing room and I’ve told them that there should be no tears tonight. We should be proud, we’ve touched the hearts of the nation back home and they’ve left their hearts on that football field so I’m happy.”

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He was not about to complain about White’s goal but did not agree with Bright’s dismissal. “It was offside,” he said. “And we’ve had decisions go our way too. But I thought the referee wasn’t in control of the game and Millie [Bright] shouldn’t have been sent off.

“Steph’s had an incredible year and she’s an amazing player,” he added. “She’ll deal with the penalty miss and she’ll be upset and disappointed. But she’s been phenomenal. Losing tonight is football, it’s sport, we’ll pick ourselves up, go again and win the bronze medal. My players won’t let me down because they never have done.”

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Along the way the Lionesses have won multiple hearts and minds but Neville refused to regard this as consolation. “No it’s not really a consolation,” he said. “That’s for other people to enjoy, for us its about winning. I can’t say we were unlucky because my players don’t want to hear that.

“They’re sick of losing semi-finals, I’m sick of it, we want to win. The difference was the US knows how to win. Their game management was spectacular. In the post-match huddle I told them I didn’t want tears because we’d lost the way I wanted us to play. With courage. We can have no regrets. We gave it our all and we’ve had the best 46 days of our life at the best World Cup ever. We don’t want it to end.”