England Under-21 boss Aidy Boothroyd admits the Young Lions must win their group to guarantee their Euro 2017 progress.
They will qualify for the semi-finals with victory over hosts Poland in Kielce on Thursday.
England top Group A ahead of the final round of fixtures as they aim to reach the knockout stages of the tournament for the first time since 2009.
Second-placed Slovakia are a point behind and also play Sweden in Lublin on Thursday with every team in the group capable of qualifying.
And Boothroyd insisted England cannot rely on going through as the best runners-up.
He said: "The way the tournament is set up with the winners of the group and the best runners-up going through, when you've got the teams that are in the other groups like Portugal, Germany and Italy, you know you have to win your group.
"We were quite pleased with a point from our first game but it's taken a bit of waking up to realise that we had to win that game and we have to win this one too. We don't want to put our future in anyone else's hands.
"We're here to go as far as we can and if we keep improving then why can't we reach the semis and go beyond that?
"But first things first, what we definitely won't do is get carried away and complacent. We've got a job to do against a really good team with 15,000 people behind them and against us."
Midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah agreed with Boothroyd after a draw with Sweden and victory over Slovakia moved England top but refused to start looking at the knockout stages yet.
He said: "It would be a great achievement. But it's more about focusing on the game tomorrow and making sure things are in our hands.
"If we can get past tomorrow then we can start focusing on the semis and hopefully going on to win the tournament."
Poland are bottom of the group after losing to Slovakia and drawing with Sweden and must win by two goals and hope the other result goes for them.
Manager Marcin Dorna said: "The situation is not easy but we have to focus what we have influence on and be prepared for the game as best as possible.
"We need to remember the level across all the groups is really high. It's a challenge we're happy to take up. We're very satisfied with the performance against Sweden."
Source: PA
