England Women v Colombia Women

England Women vs Colombia Women Preview

England needed a penalty shoot-out against Nigeria to progress through from the round of last 16 to the quarter-finals of this World Cup which they successfully achieved but the cost of their victory was a sending off for Lauren James.

The 21 year-old forward was given her marching orders after stamping on one of the Nigerian players towards the end of normal time which meant that The Lionesses had to endure a nervy period of two halves of extra-time in order to take their chances in the penalty shoot-out, which they duly managed to do.

However, Sarina Wiegman will now be without the services of James for this upcoming quarter-final clash due to her sending off, and her key contributions to date in this tournament of three goals and three assists will be sorely missed by England.

Nevertheless, England dug deep and managed to find a way to get past the Nigerians where they'll meet Colombia in the last eight of this competition at Stadium Australia on Saturday night, looking to capture a fifth win on the trot.

The Lionesses have lost just once in their last 36 matches overall and they will be in confident mood as they prepare to face a Colombian side whom they've played just once before but ran out 2-1 winners in the group stage of the World Cup in 2015.

Colombia recorded a narrow 1-0 win against Jamaica in the round of last 16 to take their place in these quarter-final fixtures of this World Cup and Nelson Abadia's side have managed to pretty much fly under the radar so far in this tournament even though they finished top of a tricky looking Group H that included the likes of Morocco, Germany and South Korea.

On paper it looked like the classic ‘group of death' but in reality, both Germany and South Korea produced wholly underwhelming group campaigns which allowed Colombia and Morocco who finished 1st and 2nd respectively, to progress through to the knockout rounds of this competition.

Colombia did slip to a 1-0 defeat to Morocco in the group stage but this turned out to be purely academic as they had already picked up wins against South Korea and Germany in 2-0 and 2-1 victories respectively.

England W v Colombia W Verdict

This looks like being another tough match-up for England especially with James now absent from the starting line-up but The Lionesses are nothing if not resilient and can generally find a way to win under Sarina Wiegman.

It may not be pretty but England could just sneak a narrow 1-0 win here to send them into the semi-finals.

Therefore, our main bet will be England win @ 1.53

Other side bets worth considering:

England win & Under 2.5 goals @ 2.87

Correct score: England 1-0 @ 4.75