Germany crush Curacao, Japan thwart Dutch at World Cup as Iran arrive

Germany thrashed World Cup debutants Curacao 7-1 on Sunday while Japan fought back to grab a 2-2 draw with the Netherlands as Iran made their long-awaited arrival in the United States with a call for unity.

Curacao, the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the tournament, made a bright start against four-time winners Germany in Houston when Livano Comenencia scored an early equalizer to give the Caribbean nation of 160,000 people a historic first World Cup goal.

But they were soon outclassed as Felix Nmecha opened the scoring for the Germans and Kai Havertz grabbed a goal in each half, including a penalty.

Despite their proud record in the competition, Germany have struggled in recent editions and this was the first time they had won their first opening match at a World Cup since they lifted the trophy in 2014.

"It took us a few minutes to get back into the game after they equalized. Curacao can play football too, as we saw, and I'm curious to see how they'll fare in the group going forward," said Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann.

"I'm very satisfied with us scoring seven goals and our performance for the most part. A winning start is always important and we're glad we managed it," he added.

Curacao will hope they can get more out of their remaining Group E games against Ecuador and Ivory Coast .

"It is not embarrassing to lose like that against such a team," said their 78-year-old Dutch coach Dick Advocaat.