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.
But this is a distinctly average German attack and even though Costa Rica were hardly brimming with adventure, their defence also looked distinctly vulnerable. He might deliver a tidy assist but there is a rick in Raum and when his mistake was compounded by an even grander one from Antonio Rudiger shortly before half-time, Keysher Campbell should have drawn Costa Rica level.
Instead, Campbell - probably his team’s best player - went for power and lift, allowing Manuel Neuer to make an excellent save. With news of the fluctuating fortunes in the Japan-Spain game coming into the Al Bayt Stadium, the only thing Flick could do was urge his team to go all out for more goals.
But the danger incorporated into that approach was soon apparent as Costa Rica, soon after Japan had gone ahead against Spain, drew level. Never could only spoon Kendall Watson’s header towards the edge of the six-yard area and Yeltsin Tejeda won a foot race with two German defenders to bring what looked like half the population of Costa Rica onto the field of play.
From that moment, Germany threw the attacking kitchen sink at the Costa Ricans but it became a battle between Musiala and Navas’s post. And after the upright won that particular contest, Juan Pablo Vargas stunned Germany by nudging his side into the lead with a scrambled finish after some fairly woeful keeping from Neuer.
Have your say! Should Germany sack Flick? Join the debate in the comments section.
If you thought there were scenes after the first Costa Rican goal, you had seen nothing yet. So, at one point, it looked as though Germany AND Spain might be eliminated but a neat Kai Havertz finish helped save one World Cup skin.
Alas, it was not his own and not his team-mates’ even though he again finished from close range and Niclas Fullkrug added a fourth with the help of a generous VAR official deeming an assistant referee’s flag to be wrong. Not that it mattered one jot in the end. Both these teams are heading home and, never mind the goals, both can have no complaints.
