Women's World Cup: England relieved to avoid Germany in last eight

England right-back Alex Scott says the squad are pleased to have avoided reigning champions and hosts Germany in the Women's World Cup quarter-finals.

Hope Powell's team will play France on Saturday, having impressed in their 2-0 victory against Japan in Augsburg, which helped them to top Group B.

The French lost 4-2 to Germany in front of over 45,000 in Moenchengladbach to finish second in Group A.

"We're relieved to have avoided Germany," Scott, 26, told BBC Sport.

"We wanted to come top of the group and then it was a case of sitting back and waiting for the result to come in."

"Germany obviously wanted to please their fans and we were hoping they would get the three points.

"So we are pleased with the draw, although France have already shown in this tournament what they're about so we've got to prepare and stick to a game plan like we did against Japan, and hopefully we can progress to the semi-final."

England have never beaten France in a competitive fixture although they knocked them out of the qualifying tournament for the 2007 World Cup on away goals, following two draws.

The French squad contains several players from the Lyon side which recently won the Champions League so Scott knows it will be a difficult match.

"France have been playing some really nice football," she said. "Everyone has been talking about them and Japan as the teams who have been playing attractive football so we know going into this game that it's not going to be easy.

"We have played them before and we know it is going to be tough and physical, but they have got really technical players so we will have to do our homework.

"They'll want revenge for what happened in the 2007 qualifying but we're going into the game positively. If we stick to our game plan we know we have things that we're good at so we're confident."

England have never reached the semi-finals of the World Cup but Scott says the manner of the victory against the Japanese in Augsburg, which was achieved without senior players, including captain Faye White and midfielder Fara Williams, has filled the squad with confidence.

"We are buzzing, we've reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup, we've topped the group so it's all positive."