SYDNEY -- England star Alessia Russo said she has been getting advice from David Beckham on how to navigate the turbulent nature of World Cups.
Russo is playing in first World Cup and spent time with Beckham before the tournament when the former England captain interviewed her for a TV programme in the UK, and they have since kept in contact.
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"He has been one of my idols ever since I was a little girl," Russo said. "It is one of my biggest highlights off the pitch to sit and have a normal conversation with someone who you would watch on the world stage when you were a young girl. It was amazing. He was really nice. It was a pinch-me moment in terms of what women's sport nowadays has done."
Russo has featured in each of England's matches in Australia as they prepare for their quarterfinal match against Colombia on Saturday. Beckham has been keeping in close touch with Russo, messaging her after games, and she is drawing on his experience of having played for England men's team in three World Cups.
Beckham experienced the lows of his red card against Argentina in 1998 while he then captained the team into 2002, where they eventually fell in the quarterfinals to Brazil, and again in 2006 where they lost on penalties in the quarterfinal.
"It was a completely World Cup-focused conversation, and it was nice to not only to hear from him about what he did on the pitch, but how he felt in the moments of the World Cup," Russo said.
"He says that it was the biggest highlight of his career, a moment that obviously he will never forget. He said that his best and biggest memories were in an England shirt. It is something that you can really relate to. For me, stepping into my first World Cup is something I've dreamt of ever since I can remember.
"He said that you should never lose sight of what you guys are doing as a team. I think sometimes we are always in the moment and all we see and compete for every day is the pitch and training. But there's an impact away from that and that's really special to hear."
England's next task is to overcome Colombia on Saturday in Sydney. The stadium is expected to be packed with Colombian fans, with England's support likely to be in the minority. England are ready for a hostile atmosphere and goalkeeper Mary Earps believes the Lionesses are ready to step their game up a level and avoid a quarterfinal exit.
"I really believe the best is yet to come," Earps said. "There's so much talent in the group and so many more levels that we can go to. That said, I think there's an incredible wealth of talent and experience from ones that we've had together as an international team but also with the teams we play for at club-level.
"We're not sitting here just happy to be here -- we're not satisfied, we're not done, there's still more levels we want to go.
"I don't think we've been bad by any means but you've seen glimpses of what we're capable of. We as a team know and understand where we want to get to. We know we can give more. That's not to say our efforts haven't been 110% there and we've ground out results -- but I think the way we want to dominate games, and go about winning games, we are excited by that challenge as a group to do more."