Germany were the beneficiaries of what stands to this day as the biggest shock in the entire history of the men’s World Cup: the time they stunned Hungary’s world-famous Golden Team in the 1954 final. That was fair enough, all good and well, but the rules of karmic cash-out meant that a terrible debt at some point needed to be settled. You might have thought that back-to-back group exits for the current shower representing the men had levelled the scales somewhat. But no! The football gods were never going to respond to the demise of teams featuring the likes of Timo Werner, Mesut Özil and Kai Havertz with anything more than a disengaged shrug. It’s simply not enough of a jaw-dropper. When you boil it down, it’s not really a shock at all. No, what German football did had to be paid for with something seismic. So it was, then, that the bill the lads decadently ran up all those years ago was finally settled by the women, who have found themselves on the end of the greatest shock in the entire history of their big event. Life’s not fair, although exactly how much sympathy Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s side – ranked second in the world – deserves is very much up for debate, effectively knocked out as they were by a team 70 places below them in the rankings and one they’d put six past in the opening game. Morocco had begun their final match against Colombia with their dream status hovering not too far above Pipe, but Elodie Nakkach and Ghizlane Chebbak put on a passing masterclass to inspire the Lionesses of Atlas to a famous victory. They’d done their bit, but surely the two-time champions would have too much for South Korea and pip them in the table? Nope! Germany huffed and puffed for 106 mainly turgid minutes against the Koreans, getting a grand total of three efforts on target despite having 72% of possession. They also rolled out the red carpet for Cho So-hyun to saunter through for the opening goal on six minutes, meaning their performance was little short of an all-round debacle from the get-go. Alex Popp’s equaliser just before half-time briefly looked to have saved their skins, but a mere six minutes and 58 seconds later, Anissa Lahmari was putting Morocco ahead in their game, and that would be the end of that. |