An early blue wave scare wasn’t enough to deter Germany, as the four-time World Cup winners ended their opening day jinx with a 7-1 thrashing of Curacao. Germany had lost the opening matches in the last two World Cup editions, but a brace from Kai Havertz and goals from Felix Nmecha, Nico Schlotterbeck, Jamal Musiala, Nathaniel Brown and Denis Undav helped them secure all three points in the end.
Curacao always knew it was going to be an uphill task for them against the mighty Germans, but they did have a moment to cheer in the first half when they found an equaliser through Livano Comenencia. But Julian Nagelsmann and his side had enough firepower to sweep aside Curacao and lay down an early marker to the rest of the sides.
Ahead of the game, Nagelsmann called the match a perfect example of a David and Goliath battle and it started off showing the massive gap in quality between the two teams.
The German attack was mainly through the middle as the Curacao defence was being cut open. They occasionally used the wings with Brown constantly overlapping and creating panic in the box.
The goalscoring started in the 6th minute when Nmecha had a nice one-two with Wirtz before sending a shot that went past Eloy Room. The ball started to follow the Dortmund man everywhere suddenly, and he had another shot that went just over the goal.
Germany continued to create chances and should have had another one. But the scoreline being 1-0 allowed Curacao to keep the belief that they can find a way back.
CURACAO’S MOMENT DASHED QUICKLY
The story of Curacao fits well with what the World Cup is all about. A nation with just a population of 158,000 had to depend on talent coming in from the Netherlands to help them live the dream and a resolute manager in Dick Advocaat to guide them.
With the score at 1-0, Curacao decided to shock everyone. A simple switch of play was enough to unlock the German defence and Curacao moved the ball through the middle. The ball was deflected and fell to Comenencia and his shot beat Neuer to send the small section of Curacao fans into delirium.
They started to feel that there was actually a chance to pull off an upset against Germany, who had lost to Mexico in 2018 and Japan in 2022 in their openers.
But the goal was able to get Germany out of their slumber as wave after wave attacks followed. Schlotterbeck had Room pull off a great save from a corner, but he was unable to stop the next one from going in the 38th minute.
Soon after, Nmecha was fouled inside the box and Havertz stepped up to ensure Germany went into the break with a 3-1 lead.
Once the game restarted, it took Jamal Musiala just 69 seconds to put the game to bed with the fourth goal for side. Suddenly, it seemed like it was shooting practice as the Germans were lining up.
By then the shots count was well past 15 as Germany ended the night with a total of 26 attempts and 11 on target. Brown, who was a menace on the left, made it 5-1 in the 68th miniute, but the hunger for goals didn’t fade away.
Nagelsmann made the changes, but there was no respite for Curacao. Undav made it 6-1 in the 78th minute as Curacao struggled to make any impact moving forward.
Havertz was able to then put the finishing touches on the contest with a fine dink goal just two minutes before the end of normal time. Even in stoppage time, Germany were trying to add more as they wanted to better their 8-0 start against Saudi Arabia all the way back in 2002.
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