Sarina Wiegman will pick the brains of her England players and staff to learn more about the country’s rivalry with Australia.
The Lionesses have set up a showdown with the Matildas in the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup after beating Colombia 2-1.
A crowd of 75,000 are expected for the game in Sydney on Wednesday, with Australia beating France on penalties in their quarter-final.
It will be the latest instalment in the long-standing rivalry between Australia and England, who played out a thrilling Ashes series earlier this summer. And Lionesses boss Wiegman, who is Dutch, is ready to get a crash course in the rivalry to get her up to speed.
“I just think it’s going to be really big,” said Wiegman. “But now I’ve had a couple of questions about that so it’s probably going to be bigger than I thought it was!
“I will speak to my players and staff to see what that rivalry is then. We have had such a warm welcome here and really enjoyed our time here in Australia.
“I actually really like the people here but that doesn’t mean there’s no rivalry, so we will see on Wednesday.
“This didn’t feel like a home game for us. It was like a home game for Colombia I think. We expect a similar crowd for Australia. That is incredible.
“We’re really looking forward to it. Of course we played Australia in April so we know them. And now we’re just really happy that we’re through, so tomorrow we’ll just start for Australia.”
England got a taste of what the atmosphere will be like on Wednesday during the win over Colombia. The crowd for this quarter-final was packed with Colombia fans, but captain Millie Bright says England relish that environment.
“The atmosphere was incredible but as players we want that, we want sold-out stadiums, we want it to be tense out there,” she said. “As a player you thrive off of that and for me that's adrenaline.
“For me, no matter who the fans are, you're actually quite proud of it as well, we want that in a World Cup, we want it to be people turning on the TV and saying: ‘God, look at the crowd, it’s incredible’.
“As a player you feel that and you use it to your advantage as well, it’s not a disadvantage that there might be a lot of Australia fans there.”
