England into the semi-finals of Women's World Cup after 2-1 victory over Colombia
12 August 2023, 13:40 | Updated: 12 August 2023, 18:33
England have progressed to the semi-finals of the Women's World Cup by beating Colombia 2-1.
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Goals from Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo either side of half time saw the Lionesses through a tense game, after Leicy Santos opened the scoring for the Colombians.
England will now face hosts Australia in the last four of the Women's World Cup on Wednesday.
Australia beat France in a dramatic penalty shoot-out to book their place in the semi-finals in Saturday morning.
Santos took the lead for Colombia on 44 minutes in a shot from the right that deceived England's goalkeeper Mary Earps, looping over her into the far corner of the net.
But Lauren Hemp equalised six minutes into first-half injury time after a calamitous mix-up at the back for Colombia. Goalkeeper Catalina Perez failed to hold onto the ball in the penalty area, leaving Hemp with the simplest of tasks to stab home from close range.
And Russo gave Sarina Wiegman's side the lead in the 63rd minutes, finishing into the bottom left corner from within the penalty area.
Colombia were the lowest-ranked side left in the competition, but they knocked out a fancied Germany side the round before, and caused some nervous periods for England here, even when the Lionesses were in the lead.
England managed to hold their nerve despite those shaky moments, and even looked dangerous themselves on the counter-attack.
At the final whistle, England's players were seen consoling the heartbroken Colombians.
A message posted on the Twitter account of the Prince and Princess of Wales congratulated the Lionesses for the win.
The post read: "Bring on the semi-finals! A hard-fought win, well done @Lionesses".
