England survive bruising Colombia test to reach World Cup semi-finals
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England's Alessia Russo scoring the team's second goal in the 2-1 Women's World Cup quarter-final win over Colombia.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SYDNEY – England coach Sarina Wiegman said resilience won the game, as her team fought back from a goal down to beat Colombia 2-1 on Saturday in a bruising encounter and set up a Women’s World Cup semi-final with Australia.
Arsenal forward Alessia Russo scored the winner for the European champions just after the hour in front of 75,000 fans in Sydney to end Colombia’s run.
Earlier in the day, co-hosts Australia beat France 7-6
The semi-final will again be in Sydney on Wednesday.
“That was a tough challenge but we didn’t expect anything else. Again, we showed resilience,” said Wiegman.
“In the first half, we played pretty well. But whenever we were sloppy on the ball, Colombia were really dangerous on the counter-attack. We know how dangerous they can be but I’m very proud of the team for finding a way to win.
“The Australia match will be huge, but this was big too – and it also felt like an away game.”
Colombia, playing in their first quarter-final, took the lead against the run of play through a wonderful dipping effort from the edge of the box by Leicy Santos on 44 minutes.
But England struck back deep in first-half stoppage time when Lauren Hemp pounced on a goalkeeping error by a fumbling Catalina Perez, before Russo sealed victory with her cool finish.
Colombia have been one of the best-supported teams at the tournament and their fans dominated at Stadium Australia, their yellow shirts vastly outnumbering England supporters.
The South Americans are ranked 25th in the world to England’s fourth and they were clear underdogs, even if they did beat world No. 2 Germany in the group phase.
Nelson Abadia’s side also have a reputation for being physical and they dished out some roughhouse treatment.
England players were twice left in a heap on the ground, but the referee waved away appeals for fouls.
Wiegman’s side were missing potent attacker Lauren James, banned for two games for stamping on an opponent
It meant that she will also miss the Australia clash, one that Russo is looking forward to.
“It’s exciting, what more do you want in front of a home crowd? We got a bit of that tonight against Colombia. But you want to play against the best teams,” she said.
“I am buzzing, we are keeping the dream alive.
“What makes this team great is finding ways to improve.
“England fans can always dare to dream, but we’ll carry on working hard.”
Abadia, meanwhile, was not too downbeat despite his team’s defeat.
“Today, we had two big mistakes and they cost us, but we were aggressive, we had the chances,” he said.
“Very positive, we have shown the growth of Colombian football.” AFP
