Defending champions Brazil, riding a Richarlison hat-trick, beat Germany 4-2 in their opening Group D football match at the International Stadium on Thursday.

Brazil should have had the outcome decided by the interval given the amount of chances they created but Germany struck twice in the second half, despite going down to 10 men in the 63rd minute.

Brazil found plenty of space from the outset and Matheus Cunha could have put them ahead in the fifth minute but his low shot at the near post was kept out by keeper Florian Mueller.

Two minutes later though the Brazilians had the lead when Richarlison burst through the inside right channel and after his first shot was parried he made no mistake with his second attempt, drilling the ball past Mueller.

The German defence was all at sea and Mueller was busy again to foil Richarlison as the forward attempted to round him and then kept out Claudinho’s effort from the loose ball.

It was no surprise when Brazil doubled their advantage with Guilherme Arana, in acres of space down the left, taking his time to pick out Richarlison in the middle and the Everton striker’s powerful header flashed past Mueller.

Richarlison completed his hat-trick with a superbly taken solo goal, curling the ball into the far corner after being set up by Matheus Cunha.

The match was a repeat of the gold medal game in Rio five years ago.

France, Argentina lose

France’s campaign got off to a dreadful start when they were thrashed 4-1 by Mexico while Argentina suffered a shock 2-0 loss to Australia.