Bronze, Bright, Charles, Walsh and James were all selected in the England starting XI by Sarina Wiegman, and the Lionesses broke the deadlock in the 15th minute of the contest.

It was a goal made in Chelsea as James received the ball down the left, moved infield and whipped a pass out to the right flank to Bronze. She controlled well, rifled a cross into the six-yard box and Alessia Russo was on hand to finish.

The advantage was one England held until the 75th minute; Kika Nazareth levelled with a fine strike after a surge into the England penalty area. Beever-Jones was introduced late on as the Lionesses searched for a winner, but the visitors to the Algarve – for whom Hannah Hampton was an unused substitute – had to settle for a draw.

Meanwhile, Sandy Baltimore featured for France as they began their Group A2 campaign against Guro Reiten's Norway. Both Chelsea players started for their respective countries while Oriane Jean-Francois was among the substitutes for Les Bleues.

Baltimore completed 90 minutes as France secured a narrow 1-0 victory at the Stadium de Toulouse courtesy of a goal for Marie-Antoinette Katoto. Reiten was replaced in the latter stages of the contest and Jean-Francois was not called upon.

There was another instance of Chelsea team-mates going head-to-head as Germany made the short trip to face the Netherlands in Group A1.

On-loan defender Veerle Buurman and midfielder Wieke Kaptein were named in the Dutch starting Xi while Sjoeke Nusken began Christian Wuck's first game in charge.

The Netherlands made an early breakthrough when Buurman stepped out of defence and played a well-weighted pass for Lineth Beerensteyn to score, but Germany levelled just before half time through Bayern Munich forward Lea Schuller.

Nusken then put the visitors ahead five minutes after the restart; the midfielder made a trademark burst into the penalty area and finished well beyond Daphne van Domselaar. Yet it wasn't a lead Germany held on to as, with 25 minutes to play, Beerensteyn struck her second and the game ended level.

There was a winning start for Johanna Rytting Kaneryd as Sweden as they secured a 2-1 victory over Denmark in Group A4. Rytting Kaneryd played 76 minutes of the contest before being replaced by Sofia Jakobsson.

Earlier in the day, the United States played their first game in the SheBelieves Cup and Catarina Macario was on target in a 2-0 victory over Mayra Ramirez's Colombia.

Macario hadn't been on the scoresheet for the USWNT since 12 April 2022, but she changed that in the 33rd minute of the contest when she converted a low cross from close range.

The forward went on to feature for just over an hour while Ramirez completed the full game for her country.

There was also a winning start – and a goal – for Maika Hamano's Japan against Australia. The Chelsea forward finished off a well-worked team move to score Japan's third goal in their 4-0 triumph.

And finally, Ashley Lawrence completed 90 minutes as Canada started the Pinatar Cup, a friendly tournament played in Murcia, Spain, with a 1-1 draw against China. She then came off the bench in the second half on Saturday as Canada followed that up with a 2-0 win over Mexico in their second game of the competition.