England have been sabotaged as they look to make the final of the Women’s World Cup.
On Wednesday, the Lionesses will lock horns with Australia hoping to make the final of a major tournament for the second time in succession – having gone all the way at the European Championships last summer.
Wednesday’s game, which kicks off at 6 a.m. ET, is a blockbuster dream matchup that will ratchet up the pressure for both teams. England is the defending European champion, desperate to win the nation’s first World Cup since 1966, when the men brought the trophy home to the birthplace of the world’s most popular game.
Australia, meanwhile, will enter the pitch with nothing but positive momentum. The host country is coming off a dramatic 10-round penalty-shot victory over France in the quarterfinals and has its best player, Sam Kerr, back in the lineup after she missed the tournament’s first three games with a calf injury. The Matildas, as the Aussie women’s team is known, have brought even more exuberance and joy to a nation already plenty passionate about its sports. Australia wants nothing more than to keep this party going.
After England came back from a one-goal deficit on Saturday to defeat Colombia 2-1 in the quarterfinals, Lioness coach Sarina Wiegman, who is from the Netherlands, was asked if she’d be taking a crash course in the Australia-England rivalry.
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