Houston [US], June 15 : German footballer Deniz Undav had a memorable outing in his side's FIFA World Cup campaign opener against debutants Curacao, becoming just the third player from his national team to score a goal and deliver an assist at least during a WC match since 1966.
World Cup debutants Curacao made history by scoring a goal on their World Cup debut and sending German camp into distress for a brief period, but it was not long before the four-time champions, powered by Undav and Kai Havertz hammered it to secure a win by a massive 7-1 margin, which is the heaviest defeat suffered by a WC debutant since 1954 (South Korea falling 0-9 to Hungary), as per Opta.
After being drafted as a substitute, Undav delivered two assists and scored a goal. As per ESPN, he is just the second German player to assist two goals in a World Cup game as a substitute after Pierre Littbarski against the United Arab Emirates in the 1990 edition of the tournament.
In the 69th minute, Brown joined the goal-scoring feast as an assist from Deniz Undav helped him fire a volley into the net, piling up more misery for the WC debutants, making it 5-1. Undav himself found the net for the seventh time in his 10th international appearance in the 78th minute, making it an absolute hammering. In the 88th minute, Havertz delivered the final blow after being fed by Undav, dinking the ball over the goalie.
After Rudi Voller (vs Argentina in 1986) and Niclas Fullkrug (vs Costa Rica in 2022), Undav is the third German to score a goal and deliver an assist each at least after coming off as a substitute. Also, his three-goal contribution as a substitute is the joint-most by someone coming from the bench in a WC game since 1966, alongside James Rodriguez (vs Japan in 2014), Tim Cahill (vs Japan in 2006) and Laszlo Kiss (vs Slovenia in 1982).
This is the biggest win in the ongoing edition of the FIFA World Cup, and this goalfest helped the four-time champions topple five-time champions Brazil as the all-time highest goal-scorers in tournament history, with 239 goals compared to Brazil's 238. This is also the fourth time that Germany scored seven or more goals in a FIFA WC match, the most by any team in tournament history.
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer started off as Germany's oldest appearance-maker in tournament history at the age of 40 years and 79 days, having reversed his international retirement for the event.