England were forced to settle for a spot in the World Cup play-offs despite concluding their League A Group 3 campaign with a convincing 3-0 win over Ukraine on Tuesday.

The Lionesses knew they had to better Spain's result against Iceland after being thrashed by La Roja last time out, but Sonia Bermudez's side won 6-1 to advance to the finals.

However, England bounced back from that setback with relative ease, with Jess Carter, Georgia Stanway and Beth Mead all on target at Hill Dickinson Stadium. 

Lauren James' early shot hit the woodwork early on, but the Chelsea star delivered a teasing cross into the box for Carter to head England into a deserved 14th-minute lead. 

Ukraine proved difficult to break down, but the hosts doubled their lead eight minutes before the break through Stanway, who slid the ball home from Alessia Russo's cross. 

The one-way traffic continued in the second half as Russo stung the palms of Kateryna Boklach just before the hour, but England would pull themselves further clear soon after. 

After Lauren Hemp was pulled back by Viktoriia Radionova, Mead stepped up and brilliantly curled the resulting free-kick into the bottom-right corner in the 67th minute. 

Jess Park and Mead forced stops from Boklach in the closing stages, but they were unable to add to their tally in the minutes that remained on Merseyside. 

But England's victory proved to be in vain as Vicky Lopez's brace sealed an emphatic 6-1 victory for Spain at Laugardalsvollur, with their triumph all but sealed by half-time. 

Lopez opened the scoring in the fifth minute before two goals in the space of eight minutes before the break from Edna Imade and Salma Paralluelo put Spain in cruise control. 

La Roja netted their fourth five minutes after the restart through Lopez, and though substitute Linda Boama pulled on back for Iceland, Spain finished the match with a flourish. 

Claudia Pina's 68th-minute strike restored Spain's four-goal lead, with Aitana Bonmati adding further gloss to the scoreline six minutes before the end. 

England narrowly miss out, but continue their impressive home run

Sarina Wiegman's side knew the enormity of the favour they needed from Iceland to automatically qualify for the World Cup, and though England fell short of a spot in the finals for now, they will be pleased with the way they responded, albeit against a winless Ukraine side.

England's opponents will be confirmed on June 18 with those fixtures to be played later this year, though many nations will want to avoid playing the Lionesses on home soil. They are now unbeaten in each of their last 26 home matches in World Cup qualifying (W24 D2). 

They have also not conceded a single goal in that run. They last let in a goal against France in an October 2002 play-off, which was also their last qualifying defeat, but it was England's attack that earned them their victory here. 

England finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 2.71 from their 26 shots, 10 of which were on target, while they also restricted Ukraine to a tally of 0.19 from their five attempts, with only one of those forcing Hannah Hampton into a save. 

It was also a special outing for Mead, who scored her 40th goal for the Lionesses. The 31-year-old went level with Fara Williams as the joint-fifth all-time top scorer for England, with only Karen Walker (41), Kerry Davis (43), Kelly Smith (46) and Ellen White (52) netting more than her.