Germany cruise to 7-1 win over debutants Curacao in Houston

HOUSTON, June 14 : 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.

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, when he played at the 2000 European Championship.

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