Preview: England vs Colombia – Lionesses look to avoid potential banana skin

England are set to take on Colombia in the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup after the former overcame Nigeria on penalties, while the South Americans knocked out the impressive Jamaica.

The Lionesses just squeezed past a very impressive Nigeria side who were tactically, technically, and physically miles above England on the night in Brisbane, but were simply unfortunate and didn’t get the rub of the green during the penalty shoot-out missing their opening two spot kicks.

Sarina Wiegman won’t be able to call upon Lauren James who infamously was handed her marching orders just minutes before the end of the second half, however, the Dutch coach does still have ample options such as Chloe Kelly, Ella Toone, and even Beth England.

It’s now being widely discussed and predicted from out here in Australia, that Tottenham Hotspur’s Bethany England could well be handed her World Cup debut against Colombia, dpeiste feturing sporadically thus far in the tournament.

England looking to avoid major upset

Wiegman certainly won’t be taking Colombia lightly as they’ve proven themselves to be a very dangerous outfit at both ends of the pitch having kept two clean sheets thus far and have a deadly attack that’s already netted five times at the World Cup and their star players have certainly turned up for the world’s biggest female tournament.

While the spotlight has largely been on Linda Caicedo – and rightfully so for her stunning displays – she isn’t the only player that England should be worried about on Saturday. Mayra Ramirez stepped up in a big way against Jamaica and was simply unplayable with her runs off the ball causing all sorts of problems for the Reggae Girlz.

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England will naturally go into the game as favourites given they are the reigning European champions, have conceded just one goal all tournament thus far, and are ranked higher than Colombia by Fifa, but that all means nothing when the players cross the white line in Sydney.

Colombia will bring the enegry on and off the pitch

It will be as mentally challenging as it’ll be physically for England against Colombia because their fans have simply brought the noise and carnival atmosphere to the World Cup and eveyrone has seemingly fallen in love with their infectious love for the game this summer.

The England players will have to ensure they can block out the noise as much as possible from the stands because with how loud it will be in Sydney on Saturday night, some players could very easily become overawed by what they are experiencing and let the occasion get the better of them.

Our prediction at Euro Weekly News is a 2-1 win for England. It’s difficult to see the Lionesses going back-to-back games wihtout finding the back of the net, while Colombia’s eergy shoudl be too much for England’s defece to cope with and keep a clean sheet.