LIVE: Kerr set to start but Matildas suffer big blow

England boss Sarina Wiegman has hit back at Australia dubbing themselves underdogs ahead of Wednesday’s Women’s World Cup clash.

Aussie coach Tony Gustavsson declared the Matildas are the underdogs at his press conference on Tuesday. When Weigman spoke to reporters shortly after, she disputed those claims.

“I don’t think Australia are the underdog, they are playing at home and the stadium will be very full,” stated the 53-year-old, whose side have won all five of their matches so far.

“There’s two teams that are very strong and have grown into the tournament, it’s going to be very tight and competitive.

“We approach the game as any other game, we prepare how we want to play and analyse our opponent really well so we can hopefully expose some weaknesses.”

The Matildas are ranked tenth while the English are the Euro champions and fourth in the world standings.

The Aussies defeated England 2-0 in a friendly in April, and despite going down in the clash, Weigman said it was a useful experience.

“That game at that point already gave us a lot of information so we’ve learned from that,” she said.

“We have that knowledge now, we have that experience and it’s really good to have that experience and take that with us tomorrow.

“But also we’ve analysed Australia during the tournament so I think we’re very well prepared for what they want to do and how they want to play. We’re ready for it.”