England survives a brutal Colombia test to reach the FIFA Women’s World Cup semi-finals
England rallied from a goal behind to defeat Colombia 2-1 on Saturday, setting up a tense Women’s World Cup semi-final against Australia.
Alessia Russo of Arsenal netted the winner for the European champions soon after the hour in front of 75,000 fans in Sydney, ending Colombia’s run in the competition.
Earlier in the day, co-hosts Australia defeated France 7-6 on penalties in Brisbane to go to the last four for the first time in their history.
On Wednesday, the semi-finals will be held in Sydney.
Colombia, in their first quarter-final, took the lead against the run of play on 44 minutes with a superb dipping attempt from the edge of the box by Leicy Santos.
Lauren Hemp pounced on a goalkeeping error by a bumbling Catalina Perez in first-half stoppage time, before Russo sealed the quarter-final in the Lionesses‘ favour with her calm finish.
Colombia has been one of the best-supported teams at the tournament, and their fans dominated at Stadium Australia, outnumbering England supporters by a large margin.
Colombia is ranked 25th in the world, compared to England’s four, and they were clearly underdogs, despite beating Germany in the group stage.
Sarina Wiegman’s England were without potent forward Lauren James, who was suspended for two games for stamping on an opponent in the last 16 win over Nigeria on penalties.
They did, however, get off to a better start, and Colombia suffered an early setback when defender Carolina Arias was taken off after 10 minutes after being injured during an England onslaught.
Every time the Lionesses received the ball, jeers erupted, yet they appeared to be having fun and finding pockets of space in front of the Colombian defenders with ease.
Nelson Abadia’s team has a reputation for being rough, and they delivered some roughhouse treatment.
Ana Guzman, 18, replaced a weeping Arias and twice left England players on the floor, but American referee Ekaterina Koroleva waved away foul protests.
With England retaliating with some soaring challenges of their own, Koroleva was in danger of losing her hold on the game.
Rachel Daly, one of the England players rattled up by Guzman, came near twice midway through the first half, headed at Perez and then striking wide.
Colombia had not been regarded as an attacking power before Santos deftly looped the ball over custodian Mary Earps, who was taken off guard.
All of the South Americans’ replacements dashed off the bench to join Santos and the rest of the team in celebrating.
England equalised just before halftime thanks to a goalkeeping error, with Perez fumbling the ball under pressure from Russo and Hemp stabbing into an empty net.
Russo put England ahead in the 63rd minute, collecting Georgia Stanway’s pass on the turn and hitting low under Perez, who was immediately replaced.
Colombia threatened a comeback, but England held on comfortably and are now just two victory away from adding a World Cup championship to their European crown.
