England have sent Colombia a warning ahead of Women's World Cup clash

England Womens World Cup Colombia

England will be hoping to make the semi-finals when they face Colombia at the Women's World Cup

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Jack Otway

By Jack Otway


Published: 11/08/2023

- 11:45

The Lionesses will be hoping to make the last four of the competition

England star Mary Earps has warned Colombia the best is yet to come from the Lionesses at the Women's World Cup.

Sarina Wiegman's side have won all four of their matches so far and, on Monday, beat Nigeria on penalties to secure a place in the quarter-finals.


While that's the case, however, England haven't yet performed at the same high level as last year when they won the European Championships.

And goalkeeper Earps insists the Lionesses are yet to play at their full potential as they look to go all the way in the competition.

England Mary Earps

England star Mary Earps has fired a warning to Colombia ahead of Women's World Cup clash

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The Manchester United star said: "I really believe the best is yet to come.

"I think there’s so much talent in the group, so many more levels that we can go [to].

"I really do believe that. There’s an incredible wealth of talent and experience, yes from experiences that we’ve had together as an international team but also with the teams that we play for at club level.

"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."

England will have to cope without star player Lauren James for the match on Saturday.

The 21-year-old has been given a two-match ban following her red card against Nigeria earlier in the week.

And Earps says James has reacted positively behind the scenes since receiving her marching orders.

"Lauren is doing fine," said the 30-year-old.

"What she did was wrong, she knows it was wrong and apologised for it publicly.

"Now she faces the consequences but as a team we stick together and stand behind in that.

"She'll support the team while she serves that ban. To be honest (James' ban) is not something we've spoken a lot about a lot because we are so focused on the game tomorrow.

"Naturally we want everyone to be available, but the situation is what it is.

"And we're a very together and cohesive unit. Our focus is only on that game tomorrow."

Meanwhile, England star Lucy Bronze echoed Earps' comments by saying the Lionesses were 'not happy' with their performances at the tournament so far.

"We can give more," the 31-year-old told Sky Sports.

"We're a fantastic team with highly-talented players, but the important thing is we got through to the next round.

"There's no point in playing our best performances in the first games, we might as well save them for the quarter-finals or further than that.

"We've built on every game, we've taken something from every game, whether that was the Haiti game that was physical, the Denmark game when we lost our key player in Keira [Walsh], the China game we changed the formation completely, [Monday] we had a red card.

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England Lauren James

England will be without Lauren James for Colombia Women's World Cup clash

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"Everything that has been thrown at us, we've dealt with and moved forward.

"I don't see many other teams who've had that adversity and if they had, I don't think they've managed to overcome the way we have.

"At the same time, we are not happy with our performances."

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