Humiliated Holders Germany Out Of The World Cup At The Group Stages
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Well, well, well. The biggest shock of the FIFA World Cup in Russia has seen the defending champions Germany crash out at the group stages.
'Die Weltmeister' (world champions) of 2014 are out of the tournament and have become far and away the most notable casualty of Russia 2018 so far.
They succumbed to a late South Korea VAR goal and as Germany pressed, they left space at the back and conceded a second.
That sent them
packing with a demoralising 2 - 0 defeat. That meant that they finished rock bottom of their group.
Their fate was sealed when they failed to better the result of Sweden, who managed against all of the odds to hammer group leaders Mexico to finish on top of the group.
Mexico can feel a bit hard done by to not finish in pole position in Group F, but they'll be happy to be through at this point. Until late in the day in both games, a German goal would have sent them out.
Although it's obviously a massive shock, it really shouldn't come as that much of a surprise, as the World Cup holders have exited the tournament at the earliest opportunity for four of the last five World Cups.
France in 2002, Italy in 2010, Spain in 2014, and now Die Mannschaft in 2018.
Even though there is a precedent for the champions leaving the tournament early in recent years, there is obviously not a great deal of history of German teams being so disappointing.
In fact, they have been so consistent that this is their first first round knock-out since 1938. That's 80 years, or 18 World Cup Finals ago since the team that has won it four times in that period has been dumped unceremoniously out of the competition.
This, of course, will be a great weight off the collective minds of quite a lot of the other teams. Brazil will be pleased. Germany represented a possible second round opponent for the South Americans.
England will be pleased, not just because Germany are out and they are England's biggest rivals (although the Germans don't necessarily see it that way) but also because England seem to always get knocked out of major tournaments by Deutschland.
Wait until the 'It's Coming Home' people get their hands on this. We've already reported that England are definitely going to win the World Cup, but given that their nightmare opponents are now out, surely this proves it once and for all. Get down to that tattoo parlour, LADs.
As for the German coach Joachim Löw, he has some serious soul-searching to do. This is the first time in the seven tournaments he has led his troops to (this admittedly includes last year's Confederations Cup, which they strolled) where the team has not made at least the semi-finals.
