The Lionesses, champions of Europe, rallied past Colombia but now face yet another hurdle: a semifinal with host Australia on Wednesday.
England entered the World Cup knockout stages still waiting to look like the dominant team it had hoped it could be. Sure, England had yet to lose a game — an accomplishment during this chaotic tournament — but so far its performances had seemed a few rungs short of the level required to accomplish its goals: to reach its first final, to lift the World Cup trophy for the first time.
England had arrived in Australia last month without three of the country’s best players, all ruled out because of serious knee injuries. Another star was hurt in the group stage and missed a game and a half. Then the Lionesses lost their best player at this World Cup, the young midfielder Lauren James, to a suspension after she was sent off for stamping on a Nigerian player in the round of 16.
But on Saturday night, in front of a Sydney crowd that presented yet another hurdle by favoring the upstart Colombians as the host nation’s preferred next opponent, England found a way forward again.
Overcoming an early goal with one of their own just before halftime, the Lionesses delivered the kind of performance they had been saying was just around the corner, beating Colombia, 2-1, to advance to the semifinals for the second straight World Cup.
