Germany’s shock World Cup exit another case of the winner’s curse

Javier Hernandez said on Tuesday that a buoyant Mexico want to “accomplish the impossible” and win the World Cup in Russian Federation, on the eve of their clash with Sweden.

“We had plenty of opportunities, we broke our necks trying out there today”, he added.

The defending champions dominated this match, directing 26 shots at goal – compared to just 11 attempts by Korea.

After a draw against Switzerland in their opening match, Brazil’s in a groove again, winning two in a row, including Wednesday’s game against Serbia 2-0.

Sweden’s second goal was met with a ripple of applause, as confusion surrounded what might yet happen, but one thing remained certain: Germany needed to score.

Former captain Lothar Matthaus, who lifted the World Cup with West Germany in 1990, wrote on Twitter: ‘This is a very sad afternoon’.

Mexico thought their World Cup was over. “There were three or four big chances we had in the game”.

Like France in 2002, Italy finished at the bottom of their group, with injuries and age playing its part.

“Thank you Korea. I don’t even know quite where it is, but thank you, thank you”.

Korea, grouped with Germany, Mexico and Sweden, failed to move on to the next stage despite its dramatic victory over Germany, due to its earlier losses to Sweden and Mexico. Spain then almost doubled their lead before a spectacular header from Robin van Persie got the Dutch even. It ended 5-1 to the men in orange. Now is not the time to go into the analysis of what went wrong.

“It was kind of a odd feeling because we really wanted to play well and win and get nine points, but in the end it’s a bitter-sweet feeling”, said Miguel Layun, who learned that South Korea had defeated Germany through the crowd in the stadium.

In the end, Sweden stunned Mexico 3-0 in Ekaterinburg in the group’s other match and it was those two nations who progressed in first and second place respectively from Group E, after Germany went down to 93rd and 96th minute goals to South Korea.

Loew’s side began their campaign with a 1-0 defeat to Mexico before rekindling their bid with a last-gasp 2-1 win over Sweden.