Sarina Wiegman: England boss says Australia 'are not underdogs' for Women's World Cup semi-final

Sarina Wiegman believes Australia are not "underdogs" in their Women's World Cup semi-final after Matildas boss Tony Gustavsson insisted England are favourites to progress.

England face the co-hosts in the last four on Wednesday at a sold-out 75,000 Stadium Australia in Sydney, with kick-off at 11am UK time.

Wiegman's side are ranked fourth in the world, are the reigning European champions and have been semi-finalists at the last two World Cups, while 10th-ranked Australia have never previously been past the quarter-finals at a major global tournament.

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Prior to Wiegman's pre-match press conference, opposition boss Gustavsson labelled England favourites to win their semi-final due to the rankings, but the England head coach immediately dismissed his claims with her first answer.

"First of all, I don't think they are underdogs," she said. "They're playing at home. The stadium will be really full so it's two teams that are very good, very strong and have grown into the tournament.

"It's going to be very tight and very competitive. We approach the game as any other game, we just prepare how we want to play.

"We've analysed our opponent really well so hopefully we can take out the strengths and exploit some weaknesses, and take it from there."

Australia ended England's 30-game unbeaten run under Wiegman with a 2-0 friendly win in April at Brentford's Gtech Community Stadium.

But Wiegman now believes her side can use that defeat to their advantage on Wednesday to reach the World Cup final for the first time.

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"That game at that point already gave us a lot of information so we've learned from that," she said.

"We have that knowledge now, we have that experience and it's really good to have that experience and take that with us tomorrow.

"But also we've analysed Australia during the tournament so I think we're very well prepared for what they want to do and how they want to play. We're ready for it."

Could Kerr start for Australia?

Sam Kerr scored the opening goal in Australia's win over England earlier this year but she has seen her World Cup hampered by a calf injury.

Despite missing the group stages, Kerr returned as a late substitute in the last 16 before playing more than 60 minutes in the quarter-final against France.

Gustavsson said the Chelsea forward is "definitely" available to face England but the Swede was not certain she would make her first start of the tournament.

"She pushed through more minutes than we hoped for to be honest," he said. "One reason why we kept her on the bench because we were uncertain how many minutes she had coming back from that calf injury, but also the limited training minutes that she had.

"The way she pushed through was fantastic and impressive, both from a mental and physical aspect."

He added: "When it comes to the line-up we'll have a discussion again about minutes. I think consistency and chemistry is key for any team that wants to be successful in tournaments.

"I have some tough decisions to make - I have a lot of player availability. What we'll do is look at always trying to start as strong as possible but finish even stronger.

"There'll be some long conversations and some tough decisions to be made. A lot of players deserve to start, but a lot of players also deserve to finish the game and win it for us."

Wiegman: Australia not just Sam Kerr

Wiegman, meanwhile, says "Australia are not just Sam Kerr" although believes there is "a lot of pressure" on the country's all-time top scorer.

The 53-year-old said: "Of course she's a threat, she's a very good player so lots of respect.

"But there's more than Sam Kerr, because at the end it's always a team performance and when a team does really well an individual can do even better.

"There's a lot of pressure on her because everyone expects things from her and for the team.

"I think Australia have grown in the tournament too. We expect a very strong Australia [on Wednesday]."

Asked whether he has a plan if Kerr starts, she responded: "Australia are not just Sam Kerr. Yes, we have a plan and she could play, she could start on the bench so that's the situation."

Aussie boss explains why England are favourites

Before Wiegman's press conference, her opposite number Gustavsson outlined why England are favourites for Wednesday's World Cup semi-final.

"If you look at rankings they [England] are favourites," he said.

"If you look at where their players play, they have starting players in top clubs in top leagues all over the world.

"Not just the starting 11, down to 15, 16. We have bench players in those teams. We have players playing in mid-table teams in Sweden.

"So if you look at all that and you look at resources, financially, obviously they are massive favourites going into this game.

"But the one thing that we have that they don't have is the support and belief from the fans. That in itself is going to be massive tomorrow."

FA 'disappointed' after Australia secure tickets in allocated England section

The FA has said it is "disappointed" after reports suggested that World Cup semi-final tickets allocated specifically for England fans were bought by Australia supporters.

A unique supporter code was reportedly leaked on social media ahead of the Lionesses' crunch match with the Matildas on Wednesday - with a number of Australian fans claiming to have purchased tickets.

The additional 1,970 tickets were released at the weekend, and around 8,000 England fans are expected to be in attendance at Stadium Australia in Sydney.

England booked their place in the semi-finals following a 2-1 win against Colombia on Saturday.

Commenting on the ticket code leak, an FA spokesman said: "We worked with FIFA to secure an additional allocation of tickets for England's World Cup semi-final against Australia.

"The details of how to purchase these tickets were communicated directly to our fans on our England Football channel, and we are disappointed to see reports that a limited number of these tickets have been accessed by other fans.

"We are working with FIFA to review this ticketing process going forward."

FIFA has been contacted for comment.

Essential Football podcast: Australia vs England preview

Sky Sports duo Anton Toloui and Charlotte Marsh return to preview the upcoming Women's World Cup semi-finals.

The pair look ahead to England's match against co-hosts Australia, which could see the return of Sam Kerr.

They also discuss why Mary Earps is the best goalkeeper in the world at the moment and where the key battles could be.

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