England vs Scotland LIVE: Women’s Nations League result, final score and reaction as Lionesses win

Early dominance from the Lionesses with Katie Zelem looking to get on the ball centrally at every opportunity.

Good recovery from Greenwood down the left as Scotland look to break, then it’s quickly back with the white shirts again.

The players take the knee ahead of kick-off and England get us underway - and they are straight onto the attack.

Rachel Daly, wing-back at the World Cup, is lining up in attack at the start of this game.

After an impeccably observed moment of silence, we are ready to go. It’s England vs Scotland and we’re off and running in the Women’s Nations League for the first time!

National anthems time with the players out on the pitch and lining up in front of a packed crowd.

We are all set for a magnificent occasion.

We’re now fewer than 15 minutes from kick-off in Sunderland and the start of the first-ever Women’s Nations League.

As a reminder, Netherlands and Belgium are the other two nations in the same group, A1.

A brilliant feature here and exclusive interview for the Independent with the granddaughter of the first-ever skipper of the Lionesses.

George Litchfield speaks to Chloe Parker, herself a footballer, about her grandmother’s legacy half a century after that memorable first match.

The Women’s World Cup final had barely started and England realised they were in a bind. Spain’s possession was dragging the players all over the pitch and completely distorting Sarina Wiegman’s shape, which meant they had to press that bit higher. As soon as they did that, however, Aitana Bonmati and those around her just passed their way into even more open space.

“That’s the quality of Spain,” a magnanimous Wiegman said afterwards, almost resigned to their superior quality. But that is also a new twist on a vintage problem, one which may point to the future for both England and the game.

It’s just over a decade since Premier League midfielders – and the rest of the world – were finding the exact same challenges against Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Sergio Busquets in the men’s game. The comparisons have already been made with this Spanish midfield, led by Aitana. The success of Spain’s men ended up influencing the entire sport, creating a spate of technically adept players, which has now come full circle. Frenetic pressing reigns for men, but it took over a decade.

The women’s game is at the other side of the curve. Spain represent the extreme example of an ongoing transformation, that has already seen the technique of European academies take the game – and the ball – away from the United States. It is going to have increasing influence.

It may also pose a problem for England.

There remains a space above England’s crest, where that star could have been. It was what Lucy Bronze had dreamt of, ever since the moment she first played for her country and realised England’s men’s and women’s teams don’t share the same badge. The Lionesses had the chance to change that, the opportunity to add their first star, the moment to capture their 1966.

But the wait will now go on. After a historic tournament where the Lionesses again made their mark and demonstrated the immense power of what they have created, Sarina Wiegman’s side were left with a devastatingly simple conclusion. As a first Women’s World Cup slipped out of reach, the deflating reality was that, on the day, Spain were just better.

And as England’s World Cup came to a close, there was no disgrace in that – certainly not against a side as talented as Spain’s, even with their issues. At full time, as the Spanish players celebrated at one end of the pitch, head coach Jorge Vilda and his staff at the other, Wiegman and her team were a picture of unity in the centre. Even in that moment, they realised they had already managed to achieve something far greater.

England striker Chloe Kelly expects the women’s game to continue growing in the country despite the Lionesses’ World Cup final heartbreak.

The Manchester City forward, match-winner in the Euro 2022 final, this time experienced the heartbreak of defeat as England were beaten by Spain in Sydney last month.

But the 25-year-old looks on the tournament as a whole as a positive experience that is only likely to generate further interest in the sport.

The Lionesses are gearing up for their first fixture since the World Cup final.

In another first, it’s the opening game of the Women’s Nations League.

And it’s the first England vs Scotland meeting since the 2019 World Cup group stage - where England triumphed 2-1. Scotland’s scorer that day is playing tonight, by the way, it was Claire Emslie.