Brazil breeze past Panama, Germany maul Morocco, Italy tame Argentina

Ary Borges scored a hat-trick on her Women's World Cup debut to help Brazil thrash debutants Panama 4-0 at the Hindmarsh stadium in Adelaide on Monday and get their campaign off to a winning start.

Brazil opened the scoring in the 19th minute when Debinha's floated cross was turned in at the back post by Borges, who netted her second of the match 20 minutes later as she poked in a rebound after having a header saved by goalkeeper Yenith Bailey.

The Brazilians turned on the style in the second half as Borges set up Bia Zaneratto with a back-heel flick for the third, before the 23-year-old headed home to become the first Brazilian player to score a hat-trick on their World Cup debut.

The result takes eighth-ranked Brazil to the top of group F, after France were held to a 0-0 draw by Jamaica on Sunday.

Also on Monday, talismanic captain Alexandra Popp scored a brace as Germany launched their bid for a third Women's World Cup title with a 6-0 demolition of debutants Morocco.

In the tournament's most one-sided match to date, veteran striker Popp led from the front, heading in two first-half strikes before Klara Buehl, Lea Schueller and two own goals blew out the score after the break in front of 27,256 at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.

The Germans' cakewalk put them top of Group H on three points, with rivals Colombia and South Korea to play their opener in Sydney on Tuesday.

“We stayed true to ourselves,” Germany coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg said.

“It was a great to have a 6-0 score ... I look forward to the next match, but today we want to be happy with what we did. It was truly a team performance.”

Seven months after the Moroccan men's fairy-tale run to the World Cup semifinals in Qatar, the Atlas Lionesses became the first Arab team to take the field at the women's showpiece.

They will hope for better in their next match against South Korea after humiliation against the Euro 2022 runners-up, who took little time to get into their groove and were ruthless to the finish.

In Banyana Banyana's group G, Italy put themselves forward as early favourites for second place to Sweden aubstitute Cristiana Girelli's 87th-minute header gave them a 1-0 win over Argentina at Eden Park, denying the South Americans a first win at the global soccer showpiece.

Veteran striker Girelli, 33, replaced 16-year-old midfielder Giulia Dragoni in the 83rd minute and needed only four minutes to make an impact, beating goalkeeper Vanina Correa with a fine header to seal a hard-fought victory.