England’s women footballers celebrated today as they made it through to their first ever World Cup final after beating Australia 3-1 in a tense semi-final with goals from Ella Toone, Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo.

Second half strikes for the European champions from Russo and Hemp silenced the home crowd of 75,000 hostile fans amid a febrile atmosphere in Sydney, with Hemp’s strike coming just minutes after Sam Kerr had equalised.

England will now take on Spain for the trophy this Sunday, after they beat Sweden 2-1 yesterday to book their ticket  to the final. The match comes just over a year after England won Euro 2022 by beating Germany.