Mary Earps: Best yet to come from England

Mary Earps has said “the best is yet to come” from England as they prepare to face Colombia in front of a sold-out and overwhelmingly hostile crowd in Sydney on Saturday

FEELING CONFIDENT: England goalkeeper Mary Earps during the press conference at Stadium Australia, Sydney. Pic: PA

Sat, 12 Aug, 2023 - 07:05

Suzanne Wrack

Mary Earps has said “the best is yet to come” from England as they prepare to face Colombia in front of a sold-out and overwhelmingly hostile crowd in Sydney on Saturday.

England have struggled to find form in Australia, with an impressive 6-1 defeat of China the outlier, having laboured to 1-0 wins against Haiti and Denmark and been taken to penalties against Nigeria in their last-16 tie.

“I really believe the best is yet to come,” the England goalkeeper said. “There’s so much talent in the group, so many more levels that we can go, I really do believe that … It’s an exciting time to be an England player. But we have to earn that right every day. We’re constantly looking to improve and drive performance and drive our standards. We’re of course sitting here happy and grateful that we’re here, but we’re not satisfied, we’re not done and there’s still more levels we want to go to.”

At the 83,500-capacity Stadium Australia, it is expected that the overwhelming majority of fans will be backing Colombia, whose supporters have travelled in force to back a team with a host of young talents, including the 18-year-old superstar forward Linda Caicedo.

Colombia’s manager, Nelson Abadía, welcomed the support against the European champions. “Having that positive support – not only from Colombia, but the entire continent – is beneficial."

Abadía claimed his side would “need to be chess players and analyse” in order to win. Exactly what they should analyse is hard to say. England played a 4-3-3 formation for their opening two games before switching to a 3-5-2 against China in the absence of the injured Keira Walsh. What they will look like against Colombia is anyone’s guess, with Lauren James suspended for two games for stepping on Nigeria’s Michelle Aloize.

On James’s two-match ban, Wiegman said: “That’s the decision that’s made. Of course that’s not up to me. It’s two games, that’s a fact for us, and we respect that punishment and we’ll take it from here and we hope we’ll get through.”

Earps said: “Lauren is doing fine. What she did was wrong, she knows that and apologised for it. Now she faces the consequences. As a team, we stick together and stand behind her. She’ll support the team as she serves that [ban].”

Guardian