World Cup Night Four Delivers a Goal Fest, Led by Germany and Sweden
The fourth night of the 2026 World Cup produced four major results, headlined by Germany’s 7-1 rout of debutants Curacao, a lively 2-2 draw between the Netherlands and Japan, Ivory Coast’s 1-0 win over Ecuador, and Sweden’s surprising 5-1 victory over Tunisia.
Germany, the 2014 world champions, had not reached the knockout stage in its last two tournaments and used a favorable matchup to put on a show. Florian Wirtz opened the scoring in the 6th minute, while 185,000 residents of Curacao celebrated their country’s first World Cup goal when Livano Comenencia made it 1-1 in the 21st minute. Germany responded before halftime through Nico Schlotterbeck and Kai Havertz, then ran away with it after the break with goals from Jamal Musiala, Nathaniel Brown on his tournament debut, Deniz Undav, and a second from Havertz. Manuel Neuer played his 20th World Cup match, matching Hugo Lloris’ record for most appearances by a goalkeeper.
The Netherlands and Japan delivered the evening’s most entertaining contest. Virgil van Dijk headed in the Dutch opener in the 51st minute, his first World Cup goal, Kaito Nakamura equalized six minutes later, Crysensio Summerville restored the Dutch lead in the 64th minute, and Daichi Kamada rescued a point for Japan with a header in the 89th.
Ivory Coast scored in the 90th minute through Manchester United’s Amad Diallo to beat Ecuador, its first World Cup win since 2014 and its first ever against a South American opponent at the tournament. The result ended Ecuador’s 19-match unbeaten run in all competitions and left Ivory Coast level on points with Germany in the group.
Sweden also impressed, racing to a 2-0 lead inside 30 minutes and then sealing the match in the 60th. The Swedes, who reached the tournament only through March playoffs after failing to win in regular qualifying, looked like a possible dark horse as Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres starred, with Gyokeres scoring his 15th goal in his last 16 international appearances.
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