How to unpack an archive without creating an additional nesting level?

Question

linux

There is a directory called Project1 with the following content (file and directory):
config.ini
sources\
There is a utility that archives it. The output is a file:
latest.tar.gz
If you open it, it will contain the `latest` folder. And it already has a config and a sources folder. How can I unpack it so that it overwrites the original files? It's just that if I extract it, the `latest` directory will be created in the target folder and everything else is already in it.

Answer 1

tar --strip-components=1 -xf latest.tar.gz

Answer 2

Well, pack it without the latest directory, but only inside it
(note the dot)