England vs Austria LIVE: Euro 2022 result, final score and reaction as Beth Mead wins it for Lionesses

Sarina Wiegman described England as “really ready to go” on the eve of the team kicking off their bid for home European Championship glory.

The Lionesses take on Austria at a sold-out Old Trafford on Wednesday in the opening match of this month’s showpiece.

Wiegman’s side have beaten Belgium 3-0 at Molineux, Holland - who she oversaw winning Euro 2017 on home soil - 5-1 at Elland Road, and Switzerland 4-0 in Zurich in warm-up matches in the past few weeks.

And the manager told a press conference on Tuesday: “We’re just really ready to go. The real preparations for the Euros started on 30 May and we just work from week to week, and from training match to training match.

“After the Switzerland game, we came back, had a little time off and then we started training to get ready for the match tomorrow. And you can feel that everyone’s really ready. We just want to go.”

The last time England hosted the Women’s European Championship, only one part of England really saw any of it, writes Mark Critchley.

The eight-team tournament in 2005 was played entirely within the confines of the North West, stretching as far north as Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road but no further south than the Halliwell Jones Stadium in Warrington. Germany ran out 3-1 winners against Norway at Ewood Park in front of a crowd of 21,105. England finished bottom of their group, by the way.

Seventeen years later, the next three-and-a-half weeks promise to demonstrate how much has changed since. It all begins in the North West once again – England host Austria at Old Trafford in tonight’s curtain-raiser – and although there is strangely no North East representation, the 10 venues stretch from Leigh down to Brighton, and the tournament will culminate in a Wembley final that has already sold all 87,200 tickets. More than 500,000 have been sold across all of the games.

That is not only a record but double the total sold for the last Euros in the Netherlands five years ago. The worldwide broadcast audience for the 2017 tournament hit 178 million but that too is set to be comfortably surpassed. Whereas Channel 4’s live coverage largely focused on the fate of the home nations then, every match will be available to watch across the BBC’s platforms now. This will be the biggest Euros yet, demonstrating the rapid pace of the game’s progress. And so, it is perhaps only right to stop and take a breath.

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Ella Toone is hoping England can ‘thrive off any nerves’ as they prepare to launch their Euro 2022 campaign.

The host nation open this summer’s long-awaited tournament when they take on Austria at a sell-out Old Trafford on Wednesday.

With England among the favourites for the title, there is plenty of excitement and nerves surrounding their involvement but Toone hopes to channel all that into positive energy.

“I think for me there’s a lot of excitement,” said the Manchester United striker. “I think all the girls are just excited to get going now.

“When we step out onto the pitch in front of that massive crowd there might be a few nerves but I always think, we play every single day, we do what we love – so thrive off the nerves if there are any but for me right now, I just can’t wait.”

Euro 2022 is finally underway after the tournament was postponed by a year due to the pandemic.

England have the chance to claim victory on home soil after falling short at the semi-final stage in the 2019 World Cup and the Lionesses remain unbeaten since head coach Sarina Wiegman took charge.

Spain are considered the slight favourites to clinch glory, while France and the Netherlands will also provide a major threat - although the Lionesses hammered the reigning European champions 5-1 in a warm-up match - while England must nullify Ada Hegerberg and avoid a slip-up against Norway in the group stage.

How can you watch the tournament - here’s the full TV schedule:

Spain have confirmed captain and Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas has suffered an ACL injury which will rule her out of Euro 2022.

The Barcelona midfielder, last season’s Champions League top goalscorer, was injured during a training session on Tuesday. La Roja later announced scans had confirmed a rupture of the ACL in her left knee.

A statement on the Spanish Football Federation website read: “Alexia Putellas suffers a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.

“The tests carried out on the Spanish international on the afternoon of this Tuesday July 5 2022 at King Edward VII’s hospital in London, have confirmed that the captain of the Spanish women’s national team has suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.”

Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Euro 2022 - with all the build-up to England’s opener against Austria this evening.

The Lionesses are hoping three points will lay down an early marker in Group A, which features Norway and Northern Ireland as well as tonight’s opponents. Austria are ranked 21st in Fifa’s world rankings and come into the fixture in good form after an impressive 1-0 victory over Belgium in their final warm-up match last week.

There is legitimate belief that England could finally win their first-ever major women’s football tournament this summer, especially with home advantage. Sarina Wiegman’s side won all three of their warm-up games and enter the tournament as second-favourites behind Spain.

However, Spain suffered a serious blow on the eve of Euro 2022 with news that their talismanic Ballon d’Or winner Alexis Putellas suffered a knee injury.

Stick with us for all the build-up and early team news.