Substitute Deniz Undav scored twice in a 2-1 comeback win over Ivory Coast on Saturday as Germany exorcized the ghosts of 2018 and 2022 by making the knock-outs for first time since 2014.
The 2014 champions crashed out in the group stage in the last two editions and Undav guaranteed qualification to the last 32 with his winner four minutes into stoppage time.
Captain Franck Kessie put the West Africans ahead on 30 minutes but Undav levelled off the bench on 68.
An injury to centre back Nico Schlotterbeck forced him off at half-time in the only negative for the Germans in Toronto.
Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann played the same starting XI which battered Curaçao 7-1 in their first Group E game.
The Ivorians dropped Elye Wahi to the bench from the team that started the 1-0 victory over Ecuador. He had only gained a Canadian visa at the second attempt amid a criminal spot-fixing probe against him in France. He denies wrongdoing.
Aleksandar Pavlović thought he had given the four-times champions the lead but he was penalized for jumping into the keeper, much to the annoyance of the German fans in the stands.
They were left to rue that just before the half-hour mark when Kessie netted after Amad Diallo's shot was blocked by Nathaniel Brown and it fell kindly for the scorer.
Nadiem Amiri later teed up fellow substitute Undav, who scored his second and then third of the tournament having feared he would not make the World Cup squad after negative comments from Nagelsmann.
