A closer look at the opening round of UEFA Women’s Euro group matches

The UEFA Women’s Euro begins on Wednesday, with the first round of group matches continuing until Sunday.

Here, the PA news agency looks at the key match-ups and what to expect from the opening fixtures.

England v Austria, Wednesday 8pmNorway v Northern Ireland, Thursday 8pm

The group featuring the two qualifying home nations is first to get under way, with hosts England kicking off the campaign against Austria.

The Lionesses won 1-0 in the two sides’ first meeting in World Cup qualifying, Ellen White with the only goal, with the return fixture still to come in September.

Sarina Wiegman’s side will be looking for another win against opponents ranked 21st in the world by FIFA, ahead of only three teams in the tournament. Austria goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger will come up against several of her Arsenal team-mates, in particular free-scoring winger Beth Mead.

Northern Ireland, lowest-ranked in 47th, begin their campaign on Thursday and face an imposing task against a Norway side boasting former Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg, Barcelona star Caroline Graham Hansen and seven Women’s Super League players.

Spain v Finland, Friday 5pmGermany v Denmark, Friday 8pm

Spain and Germany are the teams fancied to advance and will look to impose their will on their respective Scandinavian opponents.

Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas leads a sizeable Barcelona contingent in the Spanish side and will look to pose problems for a Finnish defence marshalled by Brighton’s Emma Koivisto. The two sides have not met since 2018, when Spain won World Cup qualifiers 2-0 and 5-1.

Germany have an unrivalled tournament pedigree and will be heavily favoured against Denmark, but did lose their last meeting. That was back in 2017 but Nadia Nadim, who