Germany's title defence came to a grinding halt with their final group stage match. On a night in which Sweden thrashed Mexico 3-0 and replaced them as Group F table-toppers, Germany imploded in stoppage time and lost 2-0 to South Korea. They thus finish bottom of the table in Group F and become the second consecutive defending champion to be knocked out in the group stage after Spain in 2014. After Mexico conceded against Sweden, Germany only needed a 1-0 win to confirm their passage to the knockouts. But, despite the likes of Mesut Ozil and Marco Reus in midfield, they could not provide enough crosses into the box for Mario Gomez, Timo Werner and later centre-halfs Mats Hummels and Niklas Sule to convert. Even the chance that did make it into the box were shot wide off target. It was the first time Germany have been eliminated in the first round since 1938. Kim Young-gwon scored the first goal in the third minute of injury time. Originally called out for offside, the goal was then given after video review. [bc_video video_id="5802797765001" account_id="5757251836001" player_id="ByU0hpZif"] Son Heung-min made it 2-0 in the sixth minute of injury time after Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer came up the field to help his teammates outside the South Korea box. Son tapped the ball into an empty net after a long pass from Ju Se-jong. Besides Germany this year, France in 2002, Italy in 2010 and Spain in 2014 were the previous defending champions to get eliminated in the group stage.
