Ella Toone and England ready for World Cup final - and the secret behind that celebration!

The Manchester United star - who hails from Tyldesley - put the Lionesses ahead 36 minutes into her third start of the tournament in front of a capacity crowd of 75,784 in Sydney.

She then wheeled away in delight, making a heart shape with her hands before kissing a tattoo on her arm

It turns out that was a coded message to her friends at home - all of whom have matching inkwork to mark their friendship.

Speaking ahead of the tournament, Toone told the BBC: "Yeah, I'd do an absolute madness.

“I definitely do think about that and in tournament football, moments fall to different people, and if you take them moments, and we've definitely had a lot of them throughout the tournament.

“I'm sure if it falls to me in the box then I'd be buzzing to put it away. Well, usually anything happens!

“But I'm on strict orders that my mates, we all got matching tattoos before I came out.

Toone fully justified the faith shown in her by manager Sarina Wiegman, and filling the huge gap left by the suspended Lauren James - sister of former Wigan Athletic loan star, Reece.

Indeed, even though James is available for the final against Spain, BBC pundit Alex Scott says Toone should stay in the starting XI.

“She lost her place to Lauren James, she’s saying, ‘don’t forget about me,’ what a goal it was," said Scott.

Fellow ex-Lioness Ellen White added: There’s a bit of bite behind that, I’m still here, I’m here for a show, I’m not going anywhere and I’m taking this team to a World Cup final.”

Meanwhile, Wiegman has questioned whether she is 'in a fairytale' after guiding England to their maiden Women's World Cup final.

Australia captain Sam Kerr, making her first start of competition, equalised for the first-time semi-finalists with a stunning individual goal after the break before Lauren Hemp put England back out in front.

Alessia Russo made it 3-1 late in the second half to cap off the historic encounter and set up an all-European final showdown against Spain on Sunday.

Wiegman will now appear in a fourth successive final as a head coach after winning the 2017 Women's Euros with the Netherlands, who she managed in the World Cup final defeat to the United States two years later, before she led England to European glory last summer.

Speaking after the semi-final victory pitchside, Wiegman told the BBC: "We achieved the final and it's unbelievable, it feels like we've won it.

"But we won this game, it's an incredible stadium, an away game, of course it was a hard game but again we found a way to win.

"We scored three goals, in this team, that ruthlessness, whether it's up front or in defence we really want to keep the ball out of the net, we really want to win and we stick together. We stick to the plan and it worked again."

She added: "The chance as a coach you make it to two finals is really special, I never take anything for granted but I'm like - am I in a fairytale or something?"