The Lionesses will play Cameroon in the Round of 16 in Valenciennes on Sunday and Stokes will be hoping to keep her place at left-back, after impressing in Nice in the Lionesses’ third Group D victory.
The City defender had been sidelined through injury for England’s opening encounter with Scotland, and was an unused substitute in the 1-0 victory over Argentina.
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However, Stokes was utilised by Lionesses head coach Phil Neville in the side’s 2-0 win over Japan to top Group D.
“Obviously I’m buzzing to have made my debut,” she said.
“It’s been a long time coming and obviously, it’s even better with a win as well - and a clean sheet of course, which is what you want as a defender.
“I’m proud of all of the team. It’s what we wanted - to finish with nine points and top of the group, so we are happy.
“We have good depth in our team and anyone can come in. It’s good that other people got to play as well and we got the job done.”
Both goals on the night came from new signing Ellen White either side of half-time, and Stokes is looking forward to linking up with her compatriot at Club level.
“That’s three goals in two games now, and that’s what Ellen White does well,” she added.
“She’s a very good signing, so we will look forward to that.”
The goals came from two slick moves that opened up the Japanese defence, and allowed White’s killer instinct to put the Lionesses in front.
There was a definite attacking plan in place, as Stokes explained: “The plan obviously was to come out on the front foot and get at them because we wanted to win the game.
“It was important we started well because Japan are a good team.
“There’s obviously going to be spells in the game where the other team have the ball quite a lot so it’s just being comfortable with that; staying organised, staying calm with it rather than being erratic and we did that well in the second half.”
England’s form has left the players and staff quietly confident that they should fear no-one as they head into the knockout stages with a potential quarter-final against either Norway or Australia in Le Havre next Thursday.
“As footballers we want to be on the top stage and we want to come and win it,” Stokes stated.
Dominic Scott-Bone is a Football Journalism student at the University of Derby.
