Julian Nagelsmann said his Germany team needed a result like their 7-1 hammering of Curacao.

Germany got their World Cup Group E campaign off to a flyer as they thrashed minnows Curacao at Houston Stadium.

Felix Nmecha, Nico Schlotterbeck, Jamal Musiala, Nathaniel Brown and Deniz Undav were all on target in Texas, while Kai Havertz netted twice.

Germany (239 goals) are now the all-time top scorers at the World Cup, with their tally on Sunday taking them past Brazil (238) in the goal charts.

Nagelsmann's team have now won 10 straight games, which equals Germany's second-best run. They have only gone on a longer winning streak once, when they reeled off 12 consecutive victories between 1979 and 1980.

But the former Bayern Munich boss felt his players needed the morale boost that comes with such an emphatic victory.

"We really needed this convincing win," Nagelsmann said.

"We needed this self-confidence. It was there but it definitely grew.

"We have to show [the fans] that we can perform, and we have to have the confidence. I think we’re in a better spot than we were entering this match.

"Given what happened at the last two tournaments in particular, this win is especially important."

World Cup debutants Curacao got their moment in the sun when Livano Comenencia equalised in the 21st minute.

Germany, who failed to progress from the group stage in 2018 and 2022, have not kept a clean sheet in any of their last seven World Cup matches, their longest run since 1970 (seven). Only once have they ever gone more consecutive games in the competition without recording a shutout (first nine games between 1934 and 1954).

"One team has very high expectations and the other one doesn’t and that’s a bit tricky," Nagelsmann added.

"We are on the right path, but, of course, there are things that we can do better, and we will have stronger opponents."

Aged 40 years and 79 days, Manuel Neuer became Germany's oldest appearance maker at a major tournament, surpassing Lothar Matthaus, who was 39 years and 91 days old against Portugal in the group stage of Euro 2000.

"I think everyone hopes for a good start. In a tournament like this, getting off to a good start is especially important," Neuer said. 

"The substitutes came on and brought great energy to the team. You could see the sense of enjoyment in our play."

Curacao, meanwhile, became the first World Cup debutant since South Korea in 1954 to concede as many as seven goals in their first match, while their six-goal loss was also the heaviest suffered by a debuting team in the competition since that same game (South Korea 0-9 Hungary).

"It wasn't good," said Curacao coach Dick Advocaat. "If you lose 7-1, it wasn't good. Germany were simply too strong."