Germany thrashed debutant Morocco 6-0 in their opening group stage game in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup at the Melbourne Stadium.
The journey into the 2023 Women’s World Cup started with a banger for Germany as they cruise past newbies Morocco in the Group H opener. Die Nationelf scored six goals without reply with star striker Alex Popp scoring twice in the first half. Klara Bühl added a third in the first action of the second half before two own-goals from the African side got them further behind. Deep into stoppage time, substitute Lea Schuller hit the last nail of the coffin to get the biggest win of the tournament so far. Germany already put themselves in a pole position to move into the knockouts while Morocco have a mountain to climb in upcoming games to maintain their stay in the competition.
Unbeaten
Germany are unbeaten in their last 20 group-stage games at the FIFA Women's World Cup with 16 of those resulting in a victory. This is the longest-ever run without defeat in the competition’s group round by any nation.
Sixth
Morocco were the sixth of eight African nations to compete at the finals to lose their first-ever match. They are also the 11th consecutive nation to lose their debut match in the competition.
Opening in style
Germany have now won their opening match at eight of the nine FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments while not losing at all, including each of their last six in a row with 34 goals scored and just two conceded.
Ruthless
Germany have won their previous five games against teams from Africa at the FIFA Women’s World Cup. They have scored a total of 28 goals and kept a clean sheet in each of those games.
Poacher
Alexandra Popp has scored her 10th and 11th major tournament goals overall with five in the Women’s World Cup and six in last summer’s Euros. This is the best total among current European players. The Wolfsburg striker has also scored in each of the last three editions of the finals.
Heading artist
Popp scored a mesmerizing brace in the first half with both coming from headers. In fact, she has netted eight of those 11 goals in major competition with her head.
Historical
With her brace, Alexandra Popp has now scored 64 goals for Germany, equalling Inka Grings as the joint-third-highest scorer for her nation. Only Birgit Prinz (128) and Heidi Mohr (83) have scored more for Die Nationelf.
Seconds from scoring
Germany's Klara Bühl scored the earliest goal in the second half in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup after just 23 seconds. Her teammate Lina Magull would have snatched the record had her effort not hit the crossbar only moments earlier.
Two
So far in the FIFA Women’s World Cup history, only two teams have scored multiple own goals in a single game at the tournament. The other is Ecuador against Switzerland in 2015.
Oldest
Aged 28 years and 183 days on average, Germany fielded their oldest-ever starting eleven at the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Alex Popp and Svenja Huth were the oldest members at 32 years of age.
