James stars as England come to life at World Cup

Lauren James shone again with two fine goals as England put in their best performance of the Women's World Cup so far to sweep aside China 6-1 and march into the last 16 as Group D winners.

Alessia Russo gave the European champions the perfect start with a goal in the fourth minute and Lauren Hemp and James added two more to give England a comfortable lead at the break at Hindmarsh Stadium.

James grabbed her third goal of the tournament after halftime before Chloe Kelly and Rachel Daly also found the net to give England an emphatic victory as they head off to Brisbane to play Nigeria on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals.

Without the injured Keira Walsh as the holding midfielder, England shifted to a 3-5-2 formation and caused havoc for China with balls into the box from the flanks.

"I think we are growing into this tournament. Tonight we had a great performance," England coach Sarina Wiegman said.

"The team showed that they're really adaptable ... that we can change shape very easily, that's what we showed tonight."

It was a record World Cup defeat for Asian champions and 1995 semi-finalists China, who exit in the group stage for the first time in eight appearances at the global showpiece. Denmark finished second in the group after 2-0 win over Haiti.

"It's very unfortunate that we had this terrible loss," said China coach Shui Qingxia. "We need to analyse and find ways to improve things for the future."

England opened the scoring with a move that started with a Hemp cross from the left, James heading the ball to Russo in the box and the forward bringing it down before sliding it inside the post.

James was finding it hard to find space to show her skills on the edge of the box but, fed by Millie Bright storming out of