The sound technicians missed a trick after the final whistle blew at Stadium Australia on August 16 - they should have played an old hit by The Seekers, "The Carnival Is Over". Australia's golden run at the FIFA Women's World Cup Finals came to an end in front of 75,784 fans - and millions watching throughout the co-host nation and around the world - as England prevailed 3-1 in their semi-final encounter with "The Matildas" to set up a clash against Spain at this same venue on Sunday, with the game's ultimate prize at stake. Sarina Wiegman's charges enjoyed plenty of possession in the first half-hour, but it was Australia who carved out the first opportunity, the clearly offside Sam Kerr playing to the whistle as she raced through the inside left channel en route to goal before seeing her seventh minute shot thwarted by the legs of Mary Earps. That stirred England into life, for within two minutes Alex Greenwood delivered a superb ball from deep into the stride of Georgia Stanway, racing through from midfield in behind Clare Hunt. Her shot was blocked by the legs of Mackenzie Arnold for a corner, which wasn't confidently dealt with by "The Matildas" - they eventually cleared their lines, but pretty it was not! The English were guilty of a few rough and ready challenges throughout this tussle, Greenwood being booked for the first of them, a right royal clattering of Kerr, who was making her first start of the tournament after being dogged by a calf problem for much of the past month. The England centre half was a prominent figure in the opening exchanges, heading clear a cross from the overlapping Steph Catley which was targeting Mary Fowler at the sharp end of another pacy Australian raid in the eleventh minute, one of very few occasions in the opening half-hour in which the co-hosts ventured into England's penalty area. Catley, too, was conspicuous by her presence at both ends of the park, the fullback's timely intervention two minutes later preventing a teasing Rachel Daly delivery from being capitalised upon by Lucy Bronze, who was fortunate to avoid being booked by USA referee Tori Penso for crude fouls on Catley and Caitlin Foord in the early stages of the contest. If she's "the best fullback in the world", as some describe her (and she has been on Liverpool's books in days past so there's some merit to that moniker!), Bronze shouldn't need to resort to indiscipline to maintain that standing. Indeed, doing so suggests that she's already on the slippery slope … At the other end of the park, Lauren Hemp was proving to be a constant thorn in Australia's side, engineering many an opening for "The Lionesses", such as that in the seventeenth minute which also involved Ella Toone before Alessia Russo rattled the side-netting with a rasping drive. "The Matildas" produced their best chance of the match so far in the 32nd minute, Hayley Raso swooping on a stray Jessica Carter pass and powering forward before bringing the overlapping Ellie Carpenter into play. Alas for Australia, she got her cross well wrong, overhitting the ball as three team-mates converged on the goal expecting the quality Carpenter usually delivers. England's response to this saw them opening the scoring in the 36th minute. Daly threw the ball in to Hemp near the by-line, from where she played the ball inside to Russo. Her pull-back found Toone racing onto the ball, which she struck first time with an effort which swerved away from Arnold and crashed high into the net by the far upright. 1-0 England, and apart from the pockets of their supporters dotted around Stadium Australia, the silence of the majority of the 75,784 fans present was deafening! This wasn't in their script! This was meant to be the game where "The Matildas" went beyond greatness and fulfilled their FIFA Women's World Cup ambitions by qualifying for the final, with the opposition bowing down and paying due homage as a matter of course. Needless to say, the motherland had their own ideas on that front where the colonial upstarts were concerned, and breaking the deadlock was very much a part of those thoughts. "The Matildas" looked to it back straight away through Katrina Gorry, but her twenty-yarder was directed straight at Earps. England nearly scored a second goal two minutes before half-time. Arnold pulled off a fine save low to her right to keep out a Hemp header after she had been picked out by Daly's devilishly delicious angled cross from the left, although the striker had shoved Catley out of the way in order to reach it, so the goal wouldn't have stood had she scored it. Catley responded with another left flank raid, the last of the half. Her superb cross on the run parted Kerr's hair, Daly rising behind the striker to head the ball to safety and bring a tense first half to a close with England a goal to the good. Australia started the second spell on the front foot, the generally poorly performed Foord getting in an early header whicb didn't trouble Earps. England responded via Hemp, who took advantage of a wayward Clare Polkinghorne header before holding off the challenge of Gorry and unleashing a twenty-yarder which Arnold turned round the post in the 57th minute. Greenwood's resulting corner was delivered to the far post, narrowly past which Millie Bright sent a bullet header from six yards which had Arnold beaten all ends up. In general, Australia weren't troubling England anywhere near enough at this stage of proceedings, and "The Lionesses" were continuing to enjoy the bulk of possession. "The Matildas" needed something special …

In the 62nd minute, they were level, thanks to the one player in green and gold capable of dragging her team out of the fire. England lost possession just inside Australia's half, and the ball ended up at the feet of Kerr on halfway. She had but one thing in mind, and set sail downfield with a couple of defenders covering her all the way, all the time angling towards goal until, twenty-five yards from the target, Kerr unleashed a missile which screamed beyond Earps' flailing fingertips and crashed into the top far corner of the net, prompting a deafening roar from within Stadium Australia - they'd just witnessed something a wee bit spesh! Kerr's cracker prompted a brief spell of Australian ascendancy, their captain nearly repeating the dose three minutes after her 62nd minute equaliser. This time, her swashbuckling run through the inside left channel left three defenders in her wake before Carter's timely tackle curtailed her progress. Kyra Cooney-Cross' resulting corner was flighted perfectly towards the far post, but Earps managed to punch it away amidst a posse of players. The same source delivered quality again in the 67th minute, an angled cross which Kerr met with a super glancing header, only to find Earps perfectly placed to thwart her. In the 69th minute, Bright cleared England's lines with a raking sixty yard ball out of defence, Bronze racing down the right to latch onto it before getting to the by-line and delivering a chipped cross which arced over the flailing fingertips of Arnold. Alas for England, no one in a blue shirt was coming in on the far post to turn home what would have been a killer goal. Suddenly, "The Lionesses" were in the ascendancy again, Hemp turning Carpenter on the left before delivering a near post cross which found Russo leaping between Hunt and Polkinghorne to direct a header inches past the far post. Australia played the ball downfield from the resulting goal-kick, but within seconds, Bright had belted it back in the general direction from whence it came, Hemp in hot pursuit. Carpenter was always favourite to tidy things up until she misjudged the bounce. Before she had a chance to retrieve the situation, Hemp instinctively struck a first-time angled drive across the approaching figure of Arnold and into the net by the base of the far post - 2-1 England. Once more, the sound of silence descended on Stadium Australia, save for the pockets of English fans who were celebrating this fine opportunist strike, one Hemp thoroughly deserved for her outstanding personal performance. "The Matildas" took a few minutes to get their mojo back after this blow, but come the last ten minutes it was last chance saloon time, and they threw everything at England in a bid to level the scores again. Fowler's angled ball in from the left in the 82nd minute required a glancing header from Kerr, but she met it with a full-blooded effort which cleared the crossbar. A minute later, Australia's captain was on the charge before feeding Cortnee Vine, whose shot was parried by Earps. Carter intervened in timely fashion before Emily Van Egmond could capitalise on the chance. Five minutes from time, a Catley corner was punched out by Earps, but only to the edge of the six-yard box where Kerr was lurking. Her instinctive volley sizzled the wrong side of the upright - a "what might have been" moment which will haunt Australia's talisman forever and a day. For England wrapped the game up sixty seconds later. An error by Gorry in midfield was pounced on by Hemp, who set off on a driving forty yard run through the heart of Australia's half of the pitch before slipping a no-look pass into the stride of Russo, steaming up in support through the inside right channel. Without breaking stride, she fired an angled shot unerringly beyond Arnold and into the far corner of the net to send England into the FIFA Women's World Cup Final - at 3-1, there was no way back for "The Matildas" now. As is their wont, they never gave up trying, Keira Walsh's stoppage time tackle on Alex Chidiac in the penalty area prompting fleeting calls for a spot kick. Referee Penso wasn't having a bar of it, nor for England's timewasting tactics in the dying minutes, which only delayed the inevitable. When the final whistle sounded, the European champions found themselves ninety minutes away from being able to call themselves world champions, a title the tournament co-hosts had hoped to secure, but after taking their continent on a thrilling ride into the unknown, had come up just short on the penultimate stage of the journey. Australia will finish their campaign in Brisbane on Saturday evening, looking to deny Sweden yet another third-placed finish at the FIFA Women's World Cup Finals. For England and Spain, however, the big prize looms large. On Sunday night, one of them will be world champions, with the Spanish looking to add the title to those they already hold at U-17 and U-20 level - an unprecedented treble could be theirs, one only England can deny them. Australia:     Arnold; Carpenter, Hunt, Polkinghorne (Van Egmond, 81), Catley; Raso (Vine, 71), Gorry (Chidiac, 88), Cooney-Cross, Foord; Kerr, Fowler England:     Earps; Carter, Bright, Greenwood (booked, 10); Bronze, Stanway, Walsh, Toone (Charles, 90), Daly; Russo (Kelly, 88 (booked, 90)), Hemp Referee:     Tori Penso (USA)