Mesut Ozil had a goal and an assist inside the opening 20 minutes to kick off a rout for Germany against Norway.

The World Cup holders gave the Norwegians a 6-0 thrashing in their Group C match.

Four goals in the first half - three of them inside the opening 21 minutes - put the game to bed early as their qualification for the World Cup in Russia is almost confirmed.

Mesut Ozil (C) celebrates with team mates after scoring the opener against Norway (
Image:
AFP)
Ozil again showed what Arsenal fans are desperate to produce at the Emirates (
Image:
Getty)

Germany have the maximum 24 points and are five points ahead of Northern Ireland, against whom they can complete their campaign on October 5.

Four-time world champions Germany need one point from their remaining two fixtures - in Belfast or three days later at home to Azerbaijan - to confirm their place at Russia 2018.

The Gunners star does the dirty work too for his country (
Image:
Getty)

Timo Werner scored a double while Julian Draxler, Leon Goretzka and Mario Gomez also found the net.

It was one-way traffic from the start as Germany wanted to put last week's scrappy 2-1 win in the Czech Republic behind them and Ozil's 10th minute shot opened the floodgates.

German coach Joachim Low said: "After the Czech game we said we wanted to bring a different spirit into the team, a different approach.

"Especially in the last third of the pitch we wanted to find the spaces and play into them. When you do that then you create chances and we did that."

Seconds after Germany took the lead Toni Kroos should have doubled it but he fired over the bar. Draxler, however, made no mistake with a fine turn and low drive in the 17th during a frantic opening spell.

Werner, who was booed by a small group of German fans during the game in Prague on Friday, made it 3-0 four minutes later with the Norwegians in a daze and the Stuttgart native grabbed his sixth goal in his eighth international as he headed in a cross five minutes before the break.

Timo Werner heads the fourth for Germany and his second in the first-half (
Image:
Bongarts)

Goretzka headed home Draxler's cross in the 50th and fellow substitute Gomez had time to get on the scoresheet himself with yet another header to cap a dominant performance by the hosts.

Germany have now won 26 of their last 31 World Cup qualifiers, having drawn the other five.