Germany opens World Cup against Curaçao as Neuer chases fifth-tournament record
Four-time champion Germany starts its 2026 World Cup campaign against the smallest nation ever to qualify, Curaçao, on Sunday in Houston, with Manuel Neuer returning in goal at 40.
The weight of recent failure
Germany enters its 21st World Cup needing to erase the memory of two consecutive group-stage exits, in Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022. Julian Nagelsmann’s side has rebuilt behind a blend of youth and experience, winning its last nine matches, the country’s longest streak in 46 years. The Mannschaft is ranked tenth in the world and widely expected to win Group E, which also contains Ecuador and Ivory Coast.
Curaçao’s island-sized dream
Curaçao is one of four debutants in this 48-team tournament, a Caribbean constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands with roughly 158,000 inhabitants and a surface area of 444 square kilometres. Coached by Dirk Advocaat, the team features Leandro and Juninho Bacuna as well as Tahith Chong. The island nation arrives without pressure, aiming simply to win its first-ever World Cup match, a milestone that has eluded every Concacaf debutant since Costa Rica in 1990.
- Germany
- 10
- Curaçao
- 82
Neuer, the old guardian
Manuel Neuer will become the first German to appear at five World Cups, surpassing Lothar Matthäus, after reversing his July 2024 international retirement. A calf injury kept him out of preparatory friendlies, but Nagelsmann has described the 40-year-old’s presence as an “aura” that calms the defence. Team-mate Deniz Undav said Neuer’s standing demands more precise finishing from opponents.
You notice if he’s in goal. You have to shoot a bit more accurately. He’s one of the best goalkeepers of all time, but also a very calm man. When you talk to him, you feel his experience and his understanding of football.
In the dugouts
Nagelsmann will deploy Joshua Kimmich and Nathaniel Brown as full-backs, Jonathan Tah and Nico Schlotterbeck at centre-back, with Aleksandar Pavlovic and Felix Nmecha in midfield and Jamal Musiala in the playmaker role. Nick Woltemade, Germany’s top scorer in qualifying, leads the line. Advocaat, a veteran of Dutch football, is expected to set up Curaçao in a compact shape and rely on the Bacuna brothers’ work rate.
How to watch
The match kicks off at 19:00 local time (Houston) on Sunday at the Houston Stadium. In Spain it will be broadcast free-to-air on La 1 and streamed on RTVE Play.
