With about five minutes and thirty seconds of added time remaining, the final score from the Khalifa International Stadium filtered through and the equation was as simple as it was utterly preposterous.
Germany needed to score five more goals. Considering they had scored four in the previous 94 minutes, it was something of a tall order. And considering how uncharacteristically sloppy this German team has been all over the park for so much of their three-game campaign, it was even more of a tall order.
They are going home and Costa Rica will see them at Doha airport and they can compare notes on how error-prone they have both been. Ahead of the game, the odds were slightly against Germany and it was clear from the way Serge Gnabry hurriedly retrieved the ball after burying an accomplished header from David Raum’s nicely-coaxed cross that Hansi Flick’s side were not just chasing the win, they were looking for the insurance of a landslide win.
