{"id":323613,"date":"2023-08-15T00:08:29","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T00:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=323613"},"modified":"2023-08-15T02:59:38","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T02:59:38","slug":"british-tabloids-bizarre-claim-ahead-of-matildas-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=323613","title":{"rendered":"British tabloid's bizarre claim ahead of Matildas semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"

\ufeffIt could be a ploy to soften the impending doom or the English masses genuinely believe it.<\/p>\n

A day out from the biggest national sporting event in Australia, tabloids across the UK have taken a cautious approach in pumping up the Lionesses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the Matildas<\/a> have already achieved their best at a World Cup by reaching the semi-finals, a win on Wednesday would give England's women's side its best result at the tournament, surpassing their third place finish in 2015.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'I hate that': Aussie star's gripe amid Matildas charge<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Slater's warning to Teddy over representative 'break'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Two goal umpires': McGuire's bold call for ARC technology<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

England is the European champion\ufeff and ranked fourth in the world standings as opposed to Australia, ranking 10th.<\/p>\n

After Sunday's win over Colombia, many tabloids in the UK were brimming with confidence.<\/p>\n

"Golden Girls!", "Roaring into the Semis", "Heart of a lioness", "Now Bring on the Aussies", "Goal Power: Lionesses in semi-final", "How the Lionesses can waltz past the Matildas", some front pages read.<\/p>\n

\"NSW<\/p>\n

But going into Wednesday semi-final, the tune has changed slightly.\ufeff<\/p>\n

So much so, The Sun newspaper labelled the English squad the underdogs\ufeff going into Wednesday match.<\/p>\n

"England may go into the game as underdogs \u2026 they will not be overawed despite the hostile reception awaiting them in Sydney," the tabloid wrote.<\/p>\n

"There will be another 26 million across the country baying for the Lionesses' blood, with an electric atmosphere in Sydney in the raucous build-up to the biggest football match in the country's history."<\/p>\n

\"SUpport<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps they're also taking into account the Matildas won a friendly clash in April 2-0 and that England is missing captain Leah Williamson, along with forwards Fran Kirby and Beth Mead to injury, and young star Lauren James who was banned for two games.<\/p>\n

Ian Herbert, The Mail's football columnist, also mentioned the swarming support the Matildas have received and how that energy will be difficult to defeat. He also highlighted Australia's recent dominance against the old enemy in the other sports.<\/p>\n

"Australia has retained the Ashes and beaten England in netball's World Cup final, but a win for those in yellow and green three days from now would surpass all of that."<\/p>\n

\"Matildas<\/p>\n

Wednesday's clash will be played at 11am London time, giving Brits at home a perfect chance to watch the match and cheer on their team.<\/p>\n

"I just think it is going to be really big," England coach Sarina Weigman said. "But I've had a couple of questions about that now so it's probably going to be bigger than I imagined now.<\/p>\n

"So I'll talk to my players and staff and see what that rivalry is then. I think the Australians and English can get along really well, and we've had such a warm welcome here. We've really enjoyed our time here in Australia, and I actually really like the people here.<\/p>\n

"But that doesn't mean there's no rivalry, so we'll see that on Wednesday."<\/p>\n

Australians have totally embraced the Matildas, to the point where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared a public holiday if the team wins.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"I've said that the state and territory leaders should consider it and I know that it's received a pretty warm reception in most quarters," he told the ABC.<\/p>\n

"This is something much more than just a sporting event. This is an inspiration to young girls in particular, but also young boys.''<\/p>\n

But the same can't be said for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.<\/p>\n

\"Matildas<\/p>\n

\ufeffPressure has been mounting on the UK leader to match Albanese's pledge but so far the leading party has not relented.<\/p>\n

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The Prime Minister's support for the Lionesses is well documented. I don't think there is anything to add at this time.'"<\/p>\n

Before the questions around a public holiday surfaced, Sunak showed support for England's women's team, stating\ufeff their Euro 22 triumph as a game-changer for women's football.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the year\ufeff, he also hosted a training session with the players in Downing Street and a fortnight ago his office released a YouTube video backing the Lionesses' bid for World Cup glory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\ufeffIt could be a ploy to soften the impending doom or the English masses genuinely believe it. A day out from the biggest national sporting […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":323400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323613"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323618,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323613\/revisions\/323618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/323400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}