Although Curaçao gave Germany a bit of a scare with their 21st minute equalizer from Livano Comenencia in Houston, the 2014 World Cup winners regained full control of the just before the stroke of halftime and carried on in the second half to a 7-1 victory to open up their World Cup campaign in Houston, Texas. Next to Kai Havertz’s brace, their were five other goal scorers for Germany, all of Felix Nmecha, Nico Schlotterbeck, Jamal Musiala, Nathaniel Brown and Deniz Undav all found the back of the net
in the winning effort.
On the overall balance, Die Mannschaft registered 11 shots on target to Curaçao’s 2 and had the lion’s share of possession at 65% to Curaçao’s 35%. On paper, the match unfolded how one would’ve expected with the Germans dominant on the ball and the Blue Wave relying heavily on the chances to counterattack when Germany had numbers committed forward, but the World Cup debutants were only to make one of the counters count and Comenencia’s strike was heavily aided by a deflection from Joshua Kimmich. That moment in isolation was one of the shocks of the tournament thus far and added a temporary question mark over Germany’s performance, but after Nico Schlotterbeck’s 38th minute headed goal it was well and truly one way traffic for most of the rest of proceedings.
Speaking after the match, Julian Nagelsmann was particularly pleased with the way he side responded so well to having conceded the equalizer in the 21st minute. That situation easily could’ve caused his side to derail a bit, but they stuck to the task and regained full control of the match.
“It took us a few minutes to get back into the game after they equalized. Curaçao 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,” the former Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, and Hoffenheim manager explained (via @iMiaSanMia).
With the newly-expanded format to 48 teams for this World Cup, three points and a goal difference of six could already be enough to advance to the knockout stages, but Nagelsmann and Germany will surely want to get six more points from the other two group stages matches against Ivory Coast and Ecuador.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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