world champions germany offered a stunning statement of intent with a record 11-0 win over group a rivals argentina in the opening match of the fıfa women's world cup china 2007 at the shanghai hongkou football stadium on monday.
argentina made the worst possible start when goalkeeper vanina correa punched the ball into her own net from melanie behringer's corner after 12 minutes.
kerstin garefrekes doubled germany's lead with a 17th-minute volley and behringer then made it three with a fine individual effort. birgit prinz headed germany's fourth on 29 minutes and scrambled a second on the stroke of the interval to make it 5-0.
germany had beaten argentina 6-1 at the 2003 finals and they surpassed that margin when renate lingor lobbed number six on 51 minutes. sandra smisek scored the seventh before prinz claimed her hat-trick on 59 minutes - and in the process equalled michelle akers' record number of 12 fıfa women's world cup goals. smisek then claimed her own treble, striking twice more, before correa helped a lingor corner across the line to complete germany's tournament-record victory in added time.
