The 2018 World Cup has conjured up a whole slew of shocks, but you could argue that nothing was quite as shocking as the hugely disappointing performances from Joachim Low’s Germany team.
Ahead of the tournament, many had the Germans pegged as one of the favourites to win the competition, with FC Bayern forward Thomas Muller seen as their main attacking threat. Muller had been there and done it, appearing at two previous World Cups and being a part of the Germany team that won the competition in 2014. Much like the side as a whole, Muller might as well have stayed at home this time around.
With ten World Cup strikes to his name, some optimists even saw Muller as having a genuine chance of tying countryman Miroslav Klose’s all-time record of 16 World Cup goals. For Muller and for Germany, it simply all went wrong – to the extent where Low even dropped the usually-ever-present attacker for the team’s vital, final group game against South Korea.
South Korea, of course, would dump Germany out of the tournament after a 2-0 win, and Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos was the only German who could hold his head up high after an awful campaign for the four-time World Cup winners.