15 August 2023 , 14:30
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Less than 24 hours until England's Women's World Cup semi-final clash with Australia and the mind games are in full swing.
After David Warner's dig towards the Lionesses earlier on Tuesday, it has emerged a helicopter was used to film Sarina Wiegman's final training session with her squad before the match in Sydney.
The build up to Wednesday's semi-final has, on the whole, been extremely amicable with both managers highly respective of their opponents.
While Sarina Wiegman has played down the 'rivalry' between Australia and England, it's now ramping up bringing in old enemies from the cricket pitch onto the football pitch.
As reported in The Telegraph, the Australian Daily Telegraph stated: “If England’s Lionesses thought they would happily fly under the radar into the World Cup semi final they were in for a rude shock,” boasted the Australian Telegraph. “We’ve sent the chopper up to see how the old enemy are preparing… Welcome to the jungle, Lionesses, we’ve got fun and games.”
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The newspaper went on to write: “As the Matildas held their final training session behind closed doors at Kogarah, about 100km north at Central Coast Stadium in Gosford the England team attempted to finalise their preparations without any prying eyes.
“But just as we did last week when we wanted to know if Sam Kerr was back in full training mode or on restricted duties with her calf injury, The Daily Telegraph went to the sky with these exclusive aerial photographs of England’s final training run.
“It might not be in the spirit of football, but after last month’s men’s Ashes cricket series we will let the moral arbiters England pass judgment on what is and isn’t acceptable in the world of sport. But make no mistake, England are here to ruin Australia ’s party…”
The FA has declined to comment in response to The Telegraph in the UK, although it could be extra motivation for the Lionesses as they look to reach their first ever Women's World Cup final.
No rules are believed to have been broken as there is nothing to stop domestic media outlets filming or photographing training sessions, and at this stage it is not clear whether the footage has been passed on to Australia’s coaching staff - despite the images not revealing much about the tactics.