Wirtz, Havertz and £60m Man Utd target purr for Germany as Curacao go full Brazil | OneFootball

Florian Wirtz, Kai Havertz and a Man Utd midfield target were all excellent for Germany, but we shouldn’t be wondering whether a team who have just won a World Cup game 7-1 are any good or not; FIFA have made it so.

Liverpool fans will have been torn as Wirtz laid on a sublimely casual assist in the sixth minute to get Germany’s World Cup campaign under way, asking where similar brilliance was in his debut season at Anfield while breathing a sigh of relief that the 23-year-old hasn’t completely ‘lost it’ to engender hope that new manager Andoni Iraola might be able to succeed where predecessor Arne Slot failed in getting the best out of the £100m man.

Felix Nmecha’s finish was lovely – slotted first-time into the far corner – but the space he was afforded was thanks to Wirtz acting as a beautifully cultured ‘wall’ for him to bounce his one-two off.

The slight pause and drag back from the Liverpool star was enough to draw Curacao defenders to him before he deftly laid the ball into the path of Nmecha, so that the Borussia Dortmund midfielder didn’t need to break stride as he ran onto it to score.

It was a stunning combination of ‘less is more’ football IQ and technical ability from a player who’s shown scant evidence of either of those facets of his game in his 12 months in the Premier League. A wonderfully weighted through ball for Leroy Sane later in the first half showcased the playmaker’s enviable, lesser-spotted vision.

We feared for Curacao. The smallest-ever nation to compete at a World Cup, with a population of just over 150,000 compared to Germany’s 83 million, were feeling the pain as Wirtz and Jamal Musiala found pockets of space between their defence and midfield while Nmecha drove from his deeper role to have two further efforts on goal in the opening stages.

But the minnows got their moment; their fans believed in the greatest upset in World Cup history for a full 17 minutes after drawing level through Livano Comenencia’s deflected effort after one of a few counter-attacks that a stodgy German defence really struggled to deal with.

Playing with essentially six players in attack, Julian Nagelsmann’s team were very open whenever Curacao turned the ball over and Nico Schlotterbeck, who’s currently linked with a £50m move to Real Madrid, did himself no favours to encourage new Los Blancos boss Jose Mourinho as he floundered in two attempts to clear the ball before it fell to Comenencia on the edge of the box.

He made amends to put Germany back in the lead, easily scoring with a free header from Nathanial Brown’s corner to open the floodgates as our fear was realised.

Kai Havertz scored in his fourth consecutive major tournament as he converted from the penalty spot at the end of the first half before Joshua Kimmich slid a ball through for Musiala to fire a shot in from a tight angle on the run at the start of the second.

Brown – fresh from a reported €55m [£47m] ‘agreement’ to join Bayern Munich from Frankfurt this summer – then fired in a brilliant volley after a lovely flick from substitute Denis Undav, who then got on the scoresheet himself before providing another assist for Havertz, whose dink over the goalkeeper made it 7-1 to Germany, matching their famous victory over Brazil in the 2014 semi-final.

With Brown bombing down the left flank and Wirtz, Havertz and Musiala swapping roles in the central areas, Germany look like an attacking force to be reckoned with. The least we should have expected against Curacao, perhaps.

We didn’t expect quite such a dominant performance from Nmecha, who won the penalty after scoring the opener, showing quick feet to dance past one challenge before being brought down by another. He also very nearly scored from an absurdly tight angle in the second half as his confidence soared.

The Manchester City academy graduate moved to Wolfsburg in 2021 before joining Dortmund in 2023 for a fee of around £25.9 million and a fresh contract with the Bundesliga side – signed in March to extend his stay until 2030 – has failed to curb interest from Manchester United, his long-term admirers, in acquiring him this summer.

The Red Devils remain in ‘contact’ according to a report from Sky Germany earlier this month and a 6ft 3in, goalscoring midfielder with quick feet and a good engine is a box-ticking option for Michael Carrick and INEOS as they seek a more reasonably-priced alternative to Elliot Anderson or Sandro Tonali.

It’s claimed Nmecha’s new deal includes a release clause of €80m [£69m] for 2027, dropping to €70m [£60m] in 2028, but reports from elsewhere have claimed the German side would listen to offers of around that £60m mark this summer.

Dortmund may well reconsider that asking price as Nmecha takes centre stage for Germany in the World Cup shop window. Or maybe they won’t, because while Curacao did have their moment, this was undeniably a game that will embolden critics the world over to pour scorn on Gianni Infantino and the other FIFA money-grabbers for increasing the number of competing nations to 48 and ensuring such mismatches on the global stage.

Emma Hayes described Germany’s performance as “near perfection” in the ITV studio while Juan Mata claimed they’re now a “strong candidate” to go all the way.

There’s no denying it’s a brilliant start – as good as it could have been – but we will wait for their remaining Group E games against Ivory Coast and Ecuador to make any sort of judgement on their ability to stay the course after watching a World Cup game in which brief joy turned to embarrassment for a nation who deserve to be competing on the greatest stage but probably shouldn’t be.