England withstands Australia, home crowd to reach Cup final
Lionesses score two late goals to set up an all-European match against Spain.
SYDNEY — Lauren Hemp didn’t let the Women’s World Cup semifinal match between Australia and England become the Sam Kerr show.
Hemp scored to restore England’s lead eight minutes after a superb equalizer from Kerr, and then provided a perfect pass for the clincher as the Lionesses moved into their first World Cup championship game with a 3-1 victory over Australia on Wednesday.
The semifinal outcome ended a Matildas run that captivated Australia for almost a month and sent England to a matchup with Spain in the Sunday final, where the Lionesses will have a chance to bring a World Cup home for the first time since 1966.
Sarina Wiegman became the first coach to lead two countries to the Women’s World Cup final, and in backto-back tournaments. Her run with the Netherlands in 2019 ended with a loss to the United States.
She also guided Netherlands to the European title in 2017 and then took over the England squad for its breakthrough Euro 2022 title.
“I’m the lucky one — the last two tournaments I’m going to the final,” said Wiegman, the only female coach of any team to reach the quarterfinals.
“You make it to finals, it’s really special,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Am I here in the middle of a fairytale or something?’ ”
England dominated possession in the first half, starving the Australians of the ball and shutting down the Matildas’ transitional, counterattacking game.
It was rewarded when Ella Toone scored in the 36th minute with a powerful, right-foot shot diagonally inside the far post. A throw-in from Rachel Daly went to Hemp, who turned and sent it into the area where Alessia Russo turned the ball back past Hemp for Toone to swoop.
Kerr’s equalizer in the 63rd gave the 75,784-strong crowd and millions of fans watching around Australia renewed hope, but Hemp responded with a goal in the 71st and provided a perfect through ball for Russo to finish from a tight angle four minutes from the end of regulation.
“Even after Sam’s goal there was no fear in the squad. We weren’t nervous. We just played our football,” Hemp said. “We showed the relentlessness inside the squad to make it 2-1. And then even when we’re on the back foot going into the final few minutes, I felt like we showed calm, composure on the ball to manage to counterattack them and obviously make it 3-1.”
England and Spain both will be playing in the Women’s World Cup final for the first time at Stadium Australia. It will be the first allEuropean final since 2003.
Australia will play Sweden, which lost to Spain 2-1 in the other semifinal, for third place on Saturday in Brisbane.
“We had a chance for 2-2 and a couple of minutes later it was 3-1,” Australia coach Tony Gustavsson said. “It was one of those games, unfortunately.”