Mary Earps had promised the best was yet to come from England after three limp but dogged performances out of four had earned them a place in this quarter-final. In front of 75,784 overwhelmingly hostile fans, they delivered. Well, mostly.
It was far from complete, but it was a huge improvement and the forwards Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo ensured England came from behind against Colombia to set up a mouthwatering semi-final against the co-hosts Australia on Wednesday.
“We know if we play at our best, we are unstoppable,” Hemp told the BBC regarding the match-up with Australia. “As a group we showed the team that we wanted to be and hopefully in a few days we’ll do that against Australia.”
Stadium Australia was slow to fill, fans staying camped in front of every size and shape of screen available outside the stadium to watch Australia’s dramatic penalty shootout victory…