World Cup stunner: Defending champion Germany ousted
KAZAN, Russia — Germany is out of the World Cup, the fourth defending champion in the last five tournaments to be eliminated in the group stage.
The four-time champions lost to South Korea 2-0 Wednesday, allowing a pair of injury-time goals while knowing a 1-0 victory would have been enough to advance because of the result in the other group match.
Germany ended up last in Group F while Sweden and Mexico advanced to the round of 16. South Korea was also eliminated despite the victory.
“It’s very, very hard to put it into words,” Germany defender Mats Hummels said. “We believed until the end today, even when it was 0-1, I think we kept trying to turn it all around.