By Nick Said
HOUSTON, June 14 (Reuters) – Germany began their World Cup campaign with a thumping 7-1 victory over debutants Curacao on Sunday in a match where history was made on several fronts and the one-sided result could not overshadow the occasion for the island nation.
Germany’s Felix Nmecha scored the fastest goal of the tournament so far after six minutes and Nico Schlotterbeck, Kai Havertz (two), Jamal Musiala, Nathaniel Brown and Deniz Undav also netted in an easy outing for Julian Nagelsmann’s side.
But the biggest cheer from the 68,021 crowd came for Livano Comenencia’s 21st-minute equaliser for Curacao to score their first goal at a World Cup as they became the smallest nation by population size and area to play at the global finals.
Curacao’s sizeable support enjoyed their historic day out under Dick Advocaat, who became the oldest coach in World Cup history at the age of 78, and cheered to the end on an occasion perhaps most believed would never come.
“We expected to do more against Germany, but they were too strong,” Advocaat said. “We conceded three easy goals and 4-1 would have been a better score.
“Despite this 7-1 outcome, the joy of the fans is fantastic. This is not a disgrace, we can still be proud. We still have two games to go and those could end differently.
“The players will not be downcast, it was still great to play in this game.”
Recalled goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is now also the oldest player to feature for Germany at a major tournament aged 40, beating the previous record holder Lothar Matthaeus.
“It took us a few minutes to get back into the game after they equalised,” Nagelsmann said. “Curacao can play football too, as we saw, and I’m curious to see how they’ll fare in the group going forward.
“I’m very satisfied with us scoring seven goals and our performance for the most part. A winning start is always important and we’re glad we managed it.”
COLD COMFORT FOR CURACAO
Curacao can take some cold comfort from the fact that the scoreline in their Group E opener matched Germany’s 7-1 win over hosts Brazil in the 2014 semi-finals and that on their day the four-times World Cup winners can be unstoppable.
This was not quite at that level, but the Germans were still largely clinical, controlled possession and created chances at will to send a message to rivals at this World Cup that they should be in the conversation around potential winners.
Curacao are known as The Blue Wave but instead it was wave after wave of white shirts that confronted them from the start.
Parity lasted six minutes before Germany’s quick passing on the edge of the box created a scoring chance for Nmecha, but the second goal was scored by Curacao as the plan to hit their opponents on the break worked.
Comenencia’s shot from 15 metres took a deflection that lifted the ball past Neuer.
Germany were back in front after 38 minutes, though, with a simple glancing header by Schlotterbeck and from there it became a procession.
Germany won a penalty that Havertz converted before Musiala extended the lead early in the second period leaving Brown, Undav and Havertz, with his second goal, to complete the rout.
(Reporting by Nick Said and Michael Kahn, Editing by Ken Ferris)
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