In La Beaujoire Stadium, home of Nantes, Aoba Fujino of WE League club Tokyo Verdy Beleza opened the scoring for Japan on 13 minutes with a stunning free kick, whipping the ball into the top right corner of Cata Coll’s net.
Ballon d’Or Feminine winner Aitana Bonmati levelled matters on 22 minutes, coming onto a threaded throughball by Athenea del Castillo before finishing confidently and calmly.
Bonmati, the Barcelona playmaker, was heavily involved in the winner for Mariona Caldentey, too.
Caldentey exchanged passes with Bonmati before briskly finishing into Ayaka Yamashita’s bottom-left corner for the decisive goal for Montserrat Tome Vazquez’s side.
Hasegawa and Aleixandri both played the full 90 minutes while Shimizu had to be stretchered off and replaced on 69 minutes by Hana Takahashi due to injury.
Nigeria and Brazil are the other teams in Group C and are currently in action against each other in a 18:00 (UK) clash at Stade Matmut-Atlantique in Bordeaux.
Japan are next in action on Sunday 28 July, facing Brazil with a 16:00 (UK) start at Parc des Princes while Spain take on Nigeria on the same day, with a 18:00 (UK) kick-off at La Beaujoire Stadium once again.
There are three sections in Women’s Football at Paris 2024 – Groups A, B and C. The winners and runners-up all make it through to the quarter-finals with the two best third placed teams also progressing though to the last eight. The final takes place on Saturday 10 August.
Football at the Games starts before the opening ceremony due to the number of matches. Since Sydney 2000, the football tournament has started two days before the Games are officially opened.
Women’s football made its Olympic debut at the Atlanta Games in 1996.
The USA won at Atlanta 1996, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012 while they finished runners-up to Norway in Sydney 2000.
Germany won gold at Rio 2016, with Canada defending champions after triumphing at Tokyo 2020.
