LONDON: Germany started their bid for a ninth European title in ideal fashion as they stormed to a 4-0 win over Denmark at the Brentford Community Stadium.

Lina Magull, Lea Schuller, Lena Lattwein and Alexandra Popp were on target for Germany as they overcame their old foes having been knocked out of Euro 2017 by the same opponents at the quarter-final stage.

Magull pounced on a poor clearance before firing into the back of the net to open the scoring in the 21st minute, but Germany’s second did not arrive until three minutes short of the hour, when Schuller headed home.

Lattwein capitalised on a knock-down to fire in her side’s third 12 minutes from time, before Popp capped off the night with a fourth in the 86th minute.

Kathrine Kuhl added to Denmark’s misery when she was shown a second yellow card just moments from the full-time whistle, as their bid to go one better than their runner-up finish last time around got off to a losing start.

Spain recover

Earlier, Spain overcame the shock of conceding in the first minute to open their Euro 2022 campaign with a convincing 4-1 win over Finland in Milton Keynes.

The much-fancied Spaniards were stunned when Linda Sallstrom struck with just 50 seconds on the clock in the Group B opener on Friday.

It felt like another hefty blow coming after loss of star player Alexia Putellas through injury earlier this week.

Yet they soon hit back through captain Irene Paredes and Aitana Bonmati levelled before half-time. Lucia Garcia made victory safe after the break and Mariona Caldentey added gloss with an injury-time penalty.

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