The European champions and two-time tournament winners started their quest for world domination with a more than emphatic demolition of minnows Ivory Coast, who are the lowest-ranked team in the competition.
The African side will have wanted to shut the Germans out for at least ten to fifteen minutes to make the game more of a cagey affair but the European giants had other ideas, opening the scoring in under three minutes through the lethal Celia Sasic who tapped home from close range for her 58th international goal.
After a couple more chances for the influential forward, and many more for her team in general, Sasic found the net again after 14 minutes, nodding in comfortably after cleverly beating the Ivorian defence. She could have had her hat-trick just a minute later but a last-ditch challenge prevented her from getting her shot away.
The Ivory Coast had one or two opportunities to get back in the game as the Germans seemed to suffer from lapses in concentration. Breaking away with speed, their early attacks looked promising but Germany were too organised at the back to break through.
The third German goal came through the clinical Anja Mittag, who neatly finished a lovely team goal. Just two minutes later, the game was all but over as Celia Sasic completed her hat-trick with plenty of the first half left to play.
Four minutes on, there was more misery for the Ivory Coast, Mittag grabbing her second of the game and her team’s fifth with a powerful lash into the back of the net. Half time, ten minutes later, could not have come soon enough for the team who were more than just on the back foot.
The first dramatic action of the second half came as a bit of a surprise, as the side trailing by five looked to have scored a consolation. Diakite sweeped the ball into the German net from a few yards out while lying on the floor, but she had fouled goalkeeper Angerer in the build-up meaning the goal was ruled out.
With Sasic taken off at half-time, presumably to be rested for more important games having already put three away in the first 45, the onus was on Mittag to grab a hat-trick of her own. She had a chance in the first ten minutes of the second half but failed to connect properly with the cross.
She remedied this miss soon enough though, intercepting a sloppy pass from a rather lax Ivorian back four before running into the box to finish off a lovely solo goal.
With around 18 minutes left on the clock, the underdogs were looking well and truly punished, both physically and mentally and it showed when Simone Laudehr was played in for her 25th international goal and Germany’s seventh of the night. She was replaced moments later by Lena Petermann, earning her third cap for the national side at the age of 21.
Petermann was in the thick of the action almost immediately, putting the ball on a plate for Sara Dabritz to tap in at the far post. The young substitute looked bright throughout her brief cameo and although the one assist was her only contribution, she could have had two or three more and maybe even a goal.
With their record win against Argentina in 2007 in mind, the Germans were pushing for the 11th goal that they would need to match that victory, and they looked a good bet to get it when Melanie Behringer hit a powerful volley past the Ivorian keeper for number 9.
Another rare piece of action in Germany’s box followed this, with a header forced just over the bar when it looked certain to have been making its way into the net, but play was again pulled back for a foul on a German player in the build-up.
The tenth and final goal was arguably the best as Alexandra Popp, who had been an absolute workhorse all game and definitely deserved her name on the scoresheet, stepped up to take a late free-kick and placed it with perfection low into the bottom left-hand corner.
It was the last really significant action in a blistering game which sees Germany top their group by 6 goals, with Norway in second place having won 4-0 against Thailand earlier in the day. The defeat rather predictably, leaves Ivory Coast rock bottom of Group B.
