In what can be described as the biggest upset yet, defending champions Germany have crashed out of the 2018 FIFA world cup in Russia after suffering a 2 -0 defeat in the hands of South Korea. Sweden and Mexico will now advance to the second round of the tournament.
Not only have the Germans been knocked out of the competition, they finished the group in the last position as the South Koreans finished above them with goal difference.
The last round of matches was a 3 man horse race between Germany, Mexico and Sweden as the Germans needed a convincing win to stand a chance of advance over Mexico whom they had a better goal difference over.
But Joachim Low’s side failed to capitalise on the lifeline they got when they narrowly won their second group game against Sweden. But it will be their poor outing against the Mexicans in their first game that the Germans will rue the most where they lost to the North Americans.
Germany who dominated the possession during the game had 13 shots at goal but only 6 of those managed to be on target but were not able to find the back of the net. Mesut Ozil created seven chances against the South Koreans – all from open play; the most by any player in a single game at the 2018 World Cup so far but there were goals to show for it.
South Korea, however, got their first goal late into the game in the second minute of extra-time from Young-Gwon Kim. The goal pretty much extinguished any fire left the German team but a second goal by Heung-Min Son in the 7th minute of stoppage time hit the final nail on the coffin for the German side.
This is the second time the Germans will be ousted from the group stage of the World cup, the only time being in 1938.