Can England’s Lionesses Win The Women’s World Cup After Storming Into The Semi-Finals?

England’s Lionesses are one match away from the Women’s World Cup final after a 2-1 victory over Colombia this morning, August 12.

WE ARE #FIFAWWC SEMI-FINALISTS! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🤩 pic.twitter.com/LDygfmDBsH

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) August 12, 2023

After a shaky performance to go through on penalties against Nigeria in their last-16 clash, England looked a much more confident side today.

Playing in front of a hostile crowd inside Sydney’s Australia Stadium, Sarina Wiegman’s side put on an excellent display against a side ranked 21 places lower than them, although the Columbians did not justify that placing on today’s display.

England now face Australia in the semi-final

A 2-1 win sets up what is bound to be a very tense semi-final with the co-host nation next Wednesday 16. Australia battled through to the last four yesterday after overcoming France in a penalty shootout. Incidentally, the Matildas are the only nation to beat England during Wiegman’s spell in charge.

Mary Earps conceded only her second goal of the tournament when she was beaten by Leicy Santos in the 44th minute. In a moment of sheer brilliance, the excellent Santos smashed the ball into the far corner of the net, beyond the outstretched arms of the England keeper to put the South Americans ahead.

With the last kick of the first 45 minutes, Lauren Hemp levelled the scores. A terrible mistake from Catalina Perez saw the goalkeeper fumble a shot from Alessia Russo, who managed to send the rebound under the Colombian’s body.

Hemp was on hand to capitalise on the easiest of chances and slotted the ball into a vacant net to level the scores after 51 minutes.

Russo bagged her second goal of the tournament

Russo notched her second goal of the competition after latching onto a pass from Georgia Stanway in the 63rd minute. The move should have really been dealt with by the Colombian defenders but they slipped up and the Arsenal striker thundered a shot beyond Perez into the bottom corner of the net.

‘Again it was a very tough challenge, but we didn’t expect anything else. We showed resilience and in the first half, we played pretty good’, Wiegman told ITV Sport after the match.

She continued: ‘We were too sloppy on the ball and they were really dangerous on the counter-attacks, so we conceded that goal, but we came back before half-time. I actually thought the goalkeeper already had the ball, then I saw it was in the goal’.

‘In the second half we pushed, we found a way to keep that score and win the final duels. I just hoped we would have finished the game off sooner because we could have’, the coach concluded.