FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023-A must win for England to advance

Fancied England faces a do or die battle against the spirited Colombia in the ongoing FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

England will take on each other on Saturday in the World Cup quarter-final without top scorer Lauren James, says manager Sarina Wiegman.

James, 21, was sent off in the last-16 penalty shootout victory over Nigeria and is now suspended for two games. She scored three and assisted three goals in four matches but Wiegman says England "know how they want to fill that position".

The England manager, however, said that she was still part of the squad. ‘’She gets support from everyone. In a split second, she made a mistake and that cost her two games, and she regretted it straight away,’’ Wiegman said.

The Manager said that such things do happen in the heat of the game. ‘’She is fatigued, she is inexperienced and sometimes things like that happen and that is part of life. The punishment is there, two games,’’ she added.

"Now she needs support from us and to learn from it. She is still part of our team but she just can't play on Saturday, she remarked.

England are favourites to win the Women's World Cup following shock early exits for the USA, Germany, Canada, and Brazil.

The Lionesses are also ranked 21 places higher than Colombia, but after surviving a scare against Nigeria in their last match, Wiegman expects a tough encounter at Stadium Australia in Sydney.

"Of course, there is pressure," she said. "There are two teams who are very good. We want to play our best game and they do, too. That's how we approach it."

England goalkeeper Mary Earps, who has kept three clean sheets so far, added: "We can take a lot of pride in the work that we've done so far but there's still a long way we'd like to go.