World Cup | Costa Rica – Germany | The Germans eliminated in the group stage as in 2018

Hansi Flick’s squad did the job but they did not have their destiny in their hands after their surprise loss at the start against the Japanese (1-2) and their draw against La Roja (1-1). With right-back Joshua Kimmich and Thomas Müller at the forefront, the Germans still entered this decisive match starving against opponents who quickly curled up in front of their surface.

Navas strafed

Keylor Navas diverted a first strike from Jamal Musiala (2nd) who then failed to complete his dribbling festival with a shot (7th). Müller missed the target with a diving header (9th), not Serge Gnabry who opened the scoring with a perfectly uncrossed header from a cross from the very active David Raum (10th). Determined to score as many goals as possible, the Germans besieged the cage of Navas who stood up to Leon Goretzka (14th), outstripped Müller (24th) and saw Musiala then Gnabry miss the target by nothing (36th and 39th).

The huge Costa Rican opportunity shortly before the break with a tap from Manuel Neuer against Keysher Fuller after two huge defensive failures from Niklas Süle and Antonio Rüdiger should have been an alert for Germany (42nd). This warning was not taken into account, the defense of the Mannschaft remained very feverish on the recovery. She logically cracked on a close range recovery from Yelstin Tejeda (1-1, 58th). The match then turned into madness.

The Germans gave their all, in vain

Entering the game a little earlier, Kai Havertz however quickly equalized (2-2, 72nd) before putting Germany back in front by signing a double (2-3, 84th). Niclas Füllkrug even allowed his people to finally take the break with a goal finally validated by the French Stéphanie Frappart who was spoiled for the debut of a female referee in a World Cup (2-4, 90th + 1). Despite this beautiful spectacle and this burst of energy, Germany finished 3rd in this group E with 4 points but a goal difference lower than that of Spain. His World Cup ends prematurely. Like four years ago.