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The Black Princesses were beaten 2-1 by the Europeans, who were making their debut in the global showpiece.
Goals on either side of the half from Hannah Fankhauser and Nicole Ojukwu put Austria in the driving seat before Stella Nyamekye scored a consolation goal for Ghana late in the game.
Yusif Basigi’s side, who are appearing in their sixth successive World Cup campaign, had a poor start to the game, with Austria creating a flurry of chances early on.
Black Princesses lose 2-1 to Austria
The pressure from the Europeans finally paid off after 12 minutes when Fankhauser got on the end of a well-worked move to score the opening goal.
While the Black Princesses upped the ante a bit after conceding, they couldn’t really threaten their opponents in the final third.
Any hopes of Ghana coming back were doused when they conceded a penalty in the 71st minute, which Ojukwu successfully converted.
Basigi’s side dominated the final 20 minutes by piling pressure on Austria and halved the deficit via a long-range effort from Nyamekye.
Despite launching a late onslaught, Austria held on to claim an important victory in their debut game in the U20 Women’s World Cup.
In the aftermath of the game, Basigi said his side’s opening-day defeat would not affect their confidence ahead of their remaining two group matches against Japan and New Zealand.
"I wouldn’t say there is no pressure at all because if we had won or drawn this game against Austria, it would’ve given us motivation. But now we have no option than to go all out with the remaining two games to go,” the Black Princesses boss said.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s next game will be against Japan, who routed New Zealand 7-0 in their opening group game.