England, Australia set up World Cup semi-final blockbuster

SYDNEY - England battled past a physical Colombia 2-1 and Australia survived a thrilling penalty shootout against France on Saturday to set up a blockbuster Women's World Cup semi-final.

Sarina Wiegman's European champions fought back from going down to a stunning Leicy Santos goal for a deserved win in front of a mainly pro-Colombian crowd of 75,000 in Sydney.

England will be back at Stadium Australia on Wednesday and will face an even more hostile reception against the co-hosts.

In the other quarter-final of the day, Australia beat France 7-6 in a nerve-shredding penalty shootout to reach the last four for the first time in their history.

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 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 Alessia Russo sealed the quarter-final in the Lionesses' favour with a cool second-half finish.

"I am buzzing, we are keeping the dream alive," said Russo.

"We have had to dig deep from the first game, they have so many talented players who can cause you trouble in a second."

Eyeing up the clash with Australia, Russo added: "It's exciting, what more do you want?

"I think Colombia had a great fanbase here tonight so we had a taste of it."

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.

Nelson Abadia's side have a reputation for being physical and they dished out some roughhouse treatment.

Wiegman praised her players for keeping their cool while still remaining aggressive.

"We stay calm, we can see the goal, you don't see panic," said Wiegman, who took her native Netherlands to the 2019 final, where they lost 2-0 to the United States.

"We have had lots of challenges and we have got through.

"It shows the resilience of the team... they got through really well, they got up and got the win over the line."