Cura\u00e7ao\u00a0got a goal in its first\u00a0World Cup\u00a0game. And that was the only highlight for the smallest nation in the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Germany sped past Cura\u00e7ao 7-1\u00a0on Sunday in Houston as Group E opened play. The Germans were massive favorites ahead of the game and the final score reflected it. But Curacao at least had a moment of hope early on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Germany went up 1-0 on an early\u00a0Felix Nmecha\u00a0goal, Cura\u00e7ao scored its first-ever World Cup goal on just its second shot of the game when\u00a0Livano Comenencia’s shot deflected past Germany goalkeeper\u00a0Manuel Neuer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a sharp counter-attack after Germany dominated the opening stages of the game. Yes, Germany’s defending was poor to not get the ball out of the box. But Cura\u00e7ao adeptly took advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That hope of stealing a point \u2014 or even all three points \u2014 lasted less than 20 minutes before German defender\u00a0Nico Schlotterbeck\u00a0headed home a cross to restore the Germans’ lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lead was two just before halftime when Nmecha was tripped inside the Cura\u00e7ao penalty box. The obvious foul received little protestation from Cura\u00e7ao’s players, and\u00a0Kai Havertz\u00a0converted the penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From there, the second half was a formality. Especially after\u00a0Jamal Musiala\u00a0scored less than two minutes after halftime as the Germans added three more in the second half to turn what was setting up to be a comfortable win into an absolute rout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though the win was largely expected, it’s a big step for Germany in its quest to get out of the group stages of the World Cup for the first time since winning the tournament in 2014. The victory is just the third for Germany in its last seven World Cup games. They’ll be assured of moving onto the knockout rounds of the expanded tournament with a win over either Cote d’Ivoire or\u00a0Ecuador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cura\u00e7ao, meanwhile, still remain’s the group’s massive underdogs and goal differential is now against it as well. Simply put, Cura\u00e7ao needs improbable wins against the other two teams in the group to get to the Round of 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Cura\u00e7ao\u00a0got a goal in its first\u00a0World Cup\u00a0game. And that was the only highlight for the smallest nation in the tournament. Germany sped past Cura\u00e7ao 7-1\u00a0on Sunday in Houston as Group E opened play. The Germans were massive favorites ahead of the game and the final score reflected it. But Curacao at least had a moment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-416301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416302,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416301\/revisions\/416302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}