Germany hit the woodwork THREE times in four minutes as Rauch is denied two worldies

Spain also racked up a commanding opening win in Group B, beating Finland 4-1 without their Ballon d'Or-winning superstar Alexia Putellas.

Germany, the eight-time winners and tournament's most successful side, showed exactly why with goals from Lina Magull, Lea Schuller, Lena Lattwein and Alexandra Popp securing a comfortable first win.

However, the opening 15 minutes was anything but easy, with Die Nationalelf left wondering what was going on.

The ninth minute saw Wolfsburg fullback Felicitas Rauch cannon a long-range worldie off the crossbar, only for Sara Dabritz to fumble the rebound wide.

And less than four minutes later, Rauch was back at it, coming in from the left hand side to unleash another belter which hit the crossbar, only Schuller to head the rebound off the post.

Schuller's blushes were spared as the offside flag went up, but German heads were in hands all over the pitch as they wondered what they had to do to score.

Magull eventually found the breakthrough in the 21st minute to open the floodgates, but Rauch will be wondering how she didn't end up on the scoresheet after two efforts that could have easily ended up as goal of the tournament contenders.

One of the tournament's favourites, Spain, had seen their chances take a knock with the loss of Barcelona superstar Putellas, but showed little sign of letting up against Finland.

Irene Paredes, Aitana Bonmati, Lucía Garcia and Mariona Caldentey all found the net as they rolled over Finland to join Germany at the top of Group B, whetting the appetite ahead of a showdown between the two contenders at the Brentford Community Stadium on Tuesday.