Norfolk’s Lauren Hemp says England were ‘relentless’ after her first-half goal helped the Lionesses reach the World Cup semi-finals.

England had trailed through Leicy Santos’s goal, but Hemp took advantage of some goalkeeping uncertainty to stab the ball home and equalise just before half-time.

Alessia Russo then fired home the winner to earn England a last-four clash against co-hosts Australia on Wednesday.

"It was really important to go in half-time level,” said Hemp, the former North Walsham and Norwich City Ladies product. “It was a scrappy goal but we take any that we can. You've always got to be alert in the box, especially as a number nine. It was a proper striker's finish.

"We came out in the second half and were really relentless and Alessia (Russo's) strike was a great goal which was really important for us.

“I had full faith in Alessia, she does that every week in the WSL (Women's Super League) and obviously she's bringing it to the world stage now which is unbelievable to see.

"As a group we showed the team that we wanted to today and hopefully in a few days we'll do that against Australia.

"I feel as a group we’re in a really strong place at the moment, feeling really confident, so bring on Australia in a few days.”

We’re in the semi-final right now, and I’m just ecstatic. This is where you want to be, and I want to perform on the biggest stages in the world. I can’t wait and I’m utterly over the moon."

It’s a rivalry that has caught England boss Sarina Wiegman unawares.

“I just think it is going to be really big, but I’ve had a couple of questions about that now so it’s probably going to be bigger than I imagined now,” she said.

“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.

“But that doesn’t mean there’s no rivalry, so we’ll see that Wednesday.”

Russo praised England for “keeping the dream alive”.

She told ITV: “I’m buzzing, the semi-final of a World Cup, we’re keeping the dream alive.

“I’m buzzing, obviously Colombia are a top team and I think they’ve shown more than that this World Cup. It was a really tough test, but so happy to get three points and be in the semis.

“We’ve had to dig deep from the first game and that’s what it’s like, they have so many talented players who can cause you trouble within a second.

“But I thought our back line were brilliant tonight, we kept it locked down, won and now we’re in the semis.”