Australia 1-3 England: Lionesses see off co-hosts to enter their first-ever Women’s World Cup final

England beat co-hosts Australia 3-1 to enter their first-ever Women’s World Cup final. The Lionesses will now face Spain in the final on Sunday.

England scored the first goal, as Ella Toone curled home a superb effort as Australia conceded their first World Cup goal since the second group game against Nigeria, a run of well over five hours.

However, Australia scored an equalizer through their talismanic captain Sam Kerr, who returned to the XI. She scored in the 63rd minute, hammering a sensational effort home from around 25 yards.

But England’s tournament pedigree began to shine through as Lauren Hemp brought the Lionesses back ahead soon. Moreover, Alessia Russo scored in the 86th minute to make sure of their spot in Sunday’s showpiece final against Spain is secured.

England beat Australia to reach the World Cup final

Co-hosts Australia were backed by a magnificent home crowd in Sydney. Moreover, they can still secure a third-place finish when they face Sweden in the play-off on Saturday.

England manager Sarina Wiegman was happy after reaching the final of the Women’s World Cup she said: “We achieved the final! It’s unbelievable, it feels like we won [the tournament] which we didn’t, we just won this game in an incredible stadium, an away game, the way we played it was a hard game, but we found a way to win again.

“Australia have had an incredible tournament, they grew into the tournament. They had some setbacks, they had to win their last group-stage game and then they got better and better.

“I just said to [assistant manager] Arjan, having the chance as a coach or a player to make it to two finals is really special. I never take anything for granted, but it’s like I’m living in a fairytale or something.”

England has now well and truly banished the demons of its last two World Cup semifinal defeats and has the chance to create history once again in Sunday’s showpiece final against Spain.