Talismanic captain Alexandra Popp scored a brace as Germany launched their bid for a third Women's World Cup title with a 6-0 demolition of debutants Morocco.
In the tournament's greatest mismatch to date, veteran Popp led from the front, heading in two first-half strikes before Klara Buehl, Lea Schueller and two own goals blew out the score after the break in front of 27,256 at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.
The Germans' cake-walk put them top of Group H on three points, with rivals Colombia and South Korea to play their opener in Sydney on Tuesday.
Seven months after the Moroccan men's fairytale run to the World Cup semi-finals in Qatar, the Atlas Lionesses became the first Arab team to take the field at the women's showpiece, and will hope for better in their next match against South Korea.
"We stayed true to ourselves," Germany coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg told reporters.
"It was a great to have a 6-0 score. I look forward to the next match, but today we want to be happy with what we did today. It was truly a team performance."
Seven months after the Moroccan men's fairytale run to the World Cup semi-finals in Qatar, the Atlas Lionesses became the first Arab team to take the field at the women's showpiece.
They will hope for better in their next match against South Korea after humiliation against the Euro 2022 runners-up, who took little time to get into their groove and were ruthless to the finish.
"As it stands we came across a team which was superior to our own -- David and Goliath," said Morocco coach Reynald Pedros.
"They had something that we didn't.
"I think it goes without saying we were probably going to lose but I think we didn’t need to lose by six goals."
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