Germany entered Thursday needing a couple of things to go its way—including getting help from an adversary—to avoid a second straight World Cup elimination in the group stage. And after a promising start, that extra help didn’t come.
A tournament-opening loss to Japan and draw vs. Spain put the Germans in position where they needed to beat Costa Rica and hope Spain handled Japan in Group E’s simultaneous finale. Early on in the games, that’s what was happening, with Serge Gnabry’s opener against Costa Rica occurring about the same time Álvaro Morata scored for Spain vs. Japan. But it was utter chaos from there, resulting in Japan topping the group, Spain finishing second and Germany going out, despite a 4–2 win over Los Ticos.
Japan scored twice in quick succession at the start of the second half to take the lead on Spain, and Costa Rica then went ahead of the Germans with two second-half goals of its own, which, for a time, sent both Germany and Spain tumbling out of the World Cup. Two Kai Havertz goals and one from Niclas Füllkrug confirmed by VAR restored Germany’s lead, which was enough to save Spain, but not the Germans, who needed the Spaniards to at least pull level with Japan for them to have a chance. That never happened, leaving Die Mannschaft on the outside of the final 16 once again. It’s the first time in Germany’s history that it has gone out in the group stage in back-to-back World Cups.
