UEFA Women's EURO: Players to watch in the opening games

UEFA Women's EURO 2022 begins on Wednesday and, as usual, the opening group games will be crucial to all 16 contenders.

We pick out four players with key jobs to do as the tournament kicks off.

Pernille Harder (Denmark)

With Germany and Spain also in Group B, 2017 runners-up Denmark face a tough task just to make the knockout phase. But with a two-time UEFA Women's Player of the Year in Harder, they can have high hopes of a good start when they face Germany, whose 22-year reign Denmark ended in the quarter-finals last time out.

The former Wolfsburg ace is sure to know the opposition well, and she will also feel at home opening in Brentford as she now plays down the road at Chelsea, whose Kingsmeadow stadium is Denmark's finals training base.

Ada Hegerberg (Norway)

The spotlight on Wednesday will be on Old Trafford for England vs Austria, but the following evening in Southampton it will point firmly on Hegerberg, playing her first finals game for Norway since stepping away from international football not long after Women's EURO 2017.

That was an unhappy campaign for her and the team, but she made her breakthrough on this stage four years earlier in Sweden as she helped Norway reach the final. The Lyon forward has looked her usual goal-hungry self since returning from injury last autumn, and to her national team this spring, meaning a potentially long night ahead for the Northern Ireland defence.

Caroline Seger (Sweden)

The most-capped European with 230 appearances for Sweden, Seger is ready for her fifth Women's EURO and her 13th major final tournament. Having picked up a second Olympic silver last year in Japan, Seger is still to claim a big national-team title, but many are tipping Sweden to end their 38 years of hurt since Women's EURO 1984 at Wembley on 31 July.

They face a huge test straight away as they tackle holders the Netherlands in Sheffield on Saturday, the Dutch having ended their hopes at both EURO 2017 and the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. The evergreen Seger will be looking to put that right by controlling the midfield against the only other active European with 200 caps, opposing captain Sherida Spitse.

Tessa Wullaert (Belgium)

Group D looks pretty open, but for relative newcomers Belgium – starting only their second final tournament – it will be important to start well against Iceland in Manchester on Sunday. Prolific striker Wullaert could be key as she closes in on 70 international goals, including 15 in the 2023 World Cup qualifying campaign, only one off the UEFA record.

Wullaert has plenty of top-level attacking support in Women's EURO 2022 qualifying top scorer Tine De Caigny and Lyon's Janice Cayman, but Wullaert, newly signed by Fortuna Sittard and returning to a stadium where she played for Manchester City, is undoubtedly Belgium's star.