SINSHEIM (Germany), June 27: On a great day for women’s football, it was a good day for Europe’s teams.

The World Cup started on Sunday with two stadiums brimming to overflow with goodwill, colour and the cheer of nearly 100,000 fans — plus four goals, including one stunner.

Playing in trademark black and white, hosts Germany survived opening-game jitters to beat Canada 2-1 and confirm their role as the favourites for the title. France won the opener against Nigeria 1-0 to leave Germany’s continental neighbours in charge of Group ‘A’.

On Monday, a superb Aya Miyama freekick got Japan's World Cup campaign off to a winning start with a 2-1 victory over Group B rivals New Zealand here on Monday.

Yuki Nagasato put the Japanese ahead after six minutes, with Amber Hearn quickly equalising only for Miyama to dash New Zealand hopes of a first ever point in their third women's World Cup with a curling 68-minute freekick. “Japan mesmerized us,” admitted New Zealand coach John Herdman.

At Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, though, Canada’s Christine Sinclair, playing with a broken nose for most of the second half, highlighted the day with a stunning, perfectly curled free-kick late in the game which briefly gave Canada hope. But Germany survived on grit.

It was the first goal Germany had conceded in the World Cup since 2003.

At the site of the men’s final five years ago, hundreds of German flags came out as Kerstin Garefrekes scored Germany’s first in the 10th minute and the home team support continued for the rest of the evening.

In the opening ceremony, a globe was revealed to have mirrors which reflected some of the 73,680 sell-out crowd. Before kick-off, the Mexican waves went around the ground before the game started.

From Berlin’s daunting Olympic Stadium, the contrast could hardly be bigger than the bucolic setting of the Rhein-Neckar-Arena, surrounded by wheat fields and an old hilltop castle.

Yet 600 kilometres to the south of the capital, there was hardly an empty seat as Nigeria and France kicked off the tournament before 25,475 fans under an azure sky dotted with puffy clouds.

France striker Marie-Laure Delie scored the first goal of the tournament in a scrappy goal-mouth scramble, controlling a low cross and stabbing the ball home for the victory.

Sinclair might have scored the best goal of the day, but France had the performer of the day in Louisa Necib, a smooth playmaker who makes difficult passing look dead easy, much like Zinedine Zidane did in Germany half a decade ago.

Germany’s start was much more workmanlike. Up 2-0 at halftime through goals by Garefrekes and Celia Okoyino Da Mbabi, the two-time defending champions squandered several easy chances to put the game away. Sinclair’s great strike ensured the match was fraught with tension up to the final whistle. Birgit Prinz was unable to add the her all-time World Cup tally of 14 goals, but received thunderous applause when she was taken off in the 56th.—AP