In a tense match on Saturday, England rallied from a goal behind to defeat Colombia 2-1 and set up a mouthwatering FIFA Women’s World Cup semifinal with Australia.
Alessia Russo of Arsenal scored the game-winning goal for the European champions soon after the hour in front of 75 000 spectators in Sydney, ending Colombia’s championship run.
Co-hosts Australia advanced to the round of 16 earlier in the day by defeating France 7-6 in a nail-biting penalty shootout in Brisbane.
On Wednesday, the semifinal will take place in Sydney.
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Leicy Santos’ beautiful dipping effort from the edge of the box gave Colombia, which was playing in their first quarterfinal, the lead against the odds on minute 44.
Lauren Hemp capitalised on Catalina Perez’s mistake in goalkeeping to give England the lead again in the waning seconds of the first half, but the Lionesses went on to win the quarterfinal thanks to Russo’s calm finish.
One of the most well-attended teams at the competition, Colombia’s supporters outnumbered England supporters by a wide margin at Stadium Australia.
Even if they did defeat Germany in the group stage, Colombia was clearly the underdog because they are ranked 25 in the world compared to England’s four.
Lauren James, a dangerous attacker for Sarina Wiegman’s England, was absent because she was suspended for two games for stamping on an opponent during the triumph over Nigeria on penalties in the round of 16.
However, they got off to a stronger start than Colombia, and after 10 minutes, defender Carolina Arias was forced to leave the game after suffering an injury during an English attack.
Every time the Lionesses touched the ball, jeers would erupt, but they appeared to be having fun and had no trouble finding openings in front of the Colombian defenders.
The team of Nelson Abadia is known for being aggressive, and they used some brutal tactics.
A distraught Arias was replaced by the 18-year-old Ana Guzman, who twice left England players huddled on the ground, but American referee Ekaterina Koroleva rejected complaints for fouls.
With England responding with some of their own flying challenges, Koroleva was in danger of losing control of the game.
Midway through the first half, Rachel Daly, one of the England players who had been rattled up by Guzman, twice came near, heading at Perez and then shooting over from a distance.
Santos skillfully looped the ball over custodian Mary Earps after she was fooled by the ball’s dip under her crossbar. Colombia had rarely been thought of as an attacking power.
Santos and the rest of the players sprinted off the bench to join the replacements from the South American teams in their celebration.
When Perez dropped the ball while under pressure from Russo, Hemp stabbed the ball into an empty net to give England a point just before halftime.
In the 63rd minute, Russo gave England the lead after receiving a feed from Georgia Stanway on the turn and putting the ball low under Perez, who was immediately replaced.
Colombia made a comeback attempt, but England held on with relative ease and needs two more wins to add the World Cup to their European championship.