Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann said his team's 7-1 rout of Curaçao to start their FIFA World Cup campaign was just what they needed after the four-time champions failed to get out of the group stage in the last two editions of the tournament.
Despite the confidence boosting win, things looked a little different early in the match when Dick Advocaat's World Cup debutants scored their first-ever goal at the tournament to draw level with Germany.
"A lot of shots were blocked by a lot of players in the penalty area," Nagelsmann said after the match. "If we'd had a bit more luck, we would have been leading 2-0 or even 3-0. We did really well."
Instead, a Curaçao counter-attack in the 19th minute sounded a warning, and just two minutes later, another promising attack finished with Livano Comenencia scoring a historic goal for Curaçao.
"[Curaçao] got the equalizer with I think the first shot on our goal," Nagelsmann said. "And then it was interesting to see how we can deal with that."
And respond they did. By the 30th minute, the train was back on the tracks. Aleksandar Pavlovic had a nice opportunity blocked by Comenencia, and Leroy Sané shot wide from 14 meters out. But in the 38th minute, Nico Schlotterbeck headed in a Nathaniel Brown corner, and Germany were off and running.
"It's always like that in football when you don't have the opportunity to score the same number of goals as in basketball or American football or handball," Nagelsmann said. "It can be dangerous if it's a kind of underdog and they get the equalizer. They feel better and gain more self-confidence. They take more risks. They try to score a second goal."
After 2022's exit, the mentality of Germany was ripe for questioning after suffering the harshest of misses for the knockout rounds. Germany created the best xG differential of any team in the group, but failed to advance because of 10 poor minutes. Japan scored twice late to steal a 2-1 victory in Germany's opening match, and results did not go the team's way in their next two games to ultimately send them home.
If there were lingering effects from that disappointment, however, they didn't last long.
"We recovered superbly," Nagelsmann said. "Our opponents actually played better than many people in Germany expected. They had better one-on-one situations than anticipated and didn't really play much differently from what they had shown previously. I want to compliment Dick Advocaat and his staff for preparing them so well."
Curacao came out with a bit of an old-school, 4-4-2 diamond formation and it took a bit for Germany to adjust. As it turned out, the mandatory hydration break -- instituted even as the game was played indoors in a climate-controlled environment -- helped Germany to adjust.
"Curacao played with a diamond today, and we adjusted how we attacked before the hydration break," Nagelsmann said. "But even so, there were still two or three moments where it took a little while because, at the end of the day, you actually very rarely play against a diamond-shaped team these days. It's practically unheard of. Very few teams do that anymore, and we needed a bit of time. The water break was actually good to simply reiterate what we had already adjusted on the board."
It was only a matter of time until Germany got rolling, of course. Havertz converted a penalty to give them a 3-1 halftime lead, and Jamal Musiala scored just two minutes after halftime.
"In the second half we controlled the match very well," Nagelsmann said. "We defended almost everything, created lots of chances, and scored many goals from set pieces, from possession, and from transition moments after winning the ball.
"It was a good mix of scorers as well. Overall I'm very satisfied."