Australia v England: Meet the fans with split loyalties at the Women's World Cup

The Grant family are one of many in Sydney who will have split loyalties ahead of England's semi-final with Australia

England supporters will be outnumbered in Sydney when the Lionesses take on co-hosts Australia in their Women's World Cup semi-final on Wednesday.

It will be a feeling one England super fan is very familiar with.

Kate Grant, originally from Surrey, lives in the New South Wales capital and has been backing Sarina Wiegman's side all tournament.

The problem? The rest of her family are diehard Australia supporters.

"I do sometimes feel outnumbered, this is the first time really where it has been a dogfight between England and Australia," Kate Grant told BBC Sport.

"Aside from the Ashes and the netball it's never really been a massive issue in this family until this Wednesday."

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Kate, along with her husband Steve and son Ed, have tickets for Wednesday's clash at Stadium Australia in Sydney.

And the Englishwoman has been unable to convince Australian-born Steve and Ed into backing the European champions.

"Anyone who has grown up in Australia knows the team you want to beat is England," added Steve.

"There's always a difference, luckily they don't play together too often. We'll see who wins but I'm pretty sure I know who will."

'It's getting tense'

Another football fan whose family is divided by England-Australia loyalties is Chris Calverley - originally from Southampton in England, he moved to Australia permanently in 2005 after meeting his now wife, Katrina, on a backpacking trip Down Under.

They have two sons - Blake, 12, and Alex, eight. Blake has followed in his England-supporting dad's footsteps, while Alex backs Australia in all sports - just like his mum.

"It's pretty much for all sports the house is split," say Chris, who lives with his family in the Sydney suburb of Pagewood.

"This match is huge for us. We go along on Wednesday night, and there will be two of us supporting England and two of us supporting Australia.

"The divided loyalties are at such a point that my wife went out yesterday and bought Alex an Australia top but she didn't buy Blake an England top because that's my responsibility. It's getting tense - in a friendly way."

Chris, with his children Blake and Alex and his Australian wife Katrina

Chris has previously been to a football match featuring both teams with his wife once before - when the Socceroos beat England 3-1 at Upton Park in 2003.

"We didn't talk for about three days," he jokes. "So I've probably got the most to lose in this, I could be in a bad way come 10pm on Wednesday night."

And if England lose, will he be supporting Australia in the final? "100%," he said.

"I'd be there at the final and I'd wear the green and gold. I'd be very happy for my wife and my youngest son. Although it might take me a couple of days to get over [an England defeat]."

'I never expected to have to pick a side'

The situation is less clear cut for Australia-born Beth Pankhurst, 26, who comes from a family which have dual British-Australian citizenship.

Her mother's side of the family are originally from Kent, in south-east England, but they moved to Australia.

"We grew up here, but we've always had a soft spot for the Lionesses," she said. "Mainly because domestic football in Australia, and particularly women's football, hasn't necessarily had the funding or the expertise or the advertisement that the Women's Super League [in England] has had.

"So my cousin and I are mad Chelsea women's fans. It's helped more that as time has gone on, the WSL [Women's Super League] particularly has a lot of Matildas players. They don't play in our A League here, they play overseas, a lot of the time alongside the Lionesses."

Her usual support for both teams has encountered a problem now the teams are set to meet on the biggest stage.

"An occasional friendly between Australia and England is fine, but I don't think we ever expected to be quite in this situation where we had to pick between which side to support."

So far Beth has gone to England's two World Cup matches in Sydney, as well as travelling around the country for all of Australia's games.

But she admits that when she originally bought tickets for Sunday's final, she never expected the Matildas to be in contention to get there, let alone at the expense of England.

"Now we're in this position we've very much conflicted," she added.

Beth Pankhurst (second from left, and right), who lives in Sydney, has sported both Australia and England colours at the World Cup

Beth currently has England-supporting family visiting from London, so a group of 20 of them will be going to the semi-final.

Some family members have said they will be painting their faces 50/50 "so they win either way".

Beth, who jokes that it will be cold enough to wear her England shirt under her Australia jersey, is going to be rooting for the Matildas.

"It will be a rough divide of 10 of us going for the Matildas and 10 of us going for the Lionesses," she said.

So could she call it a win-win situation for her?

"Exactly, either way we will be cheering in the car - either because Australia have won and we've never got to this point before or cheering because the Lionesses are well and truly bringing it home," she added.

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