The final Group E match at FIFA 2022 saw four-time world champions Germany take on Costa Rica in a do-or-die match for the Germans, to have any hopes of making it to the knockout stages. Heading into the match, Germany had only collected one point from their opening two games. So, they needed a desperate victory in their third group stage match against Costa Rica, and the win needed to be by a huge margin.
The 2014 world champions did eventually manage to score a dominating 4-2 victory over Costa, aided by twin goals by Havertz in the 10th and 85th minute and goals by Gnabry and Fullkrug, but still ended up crashing out of the World Cup at the group stage yet again.
Germany began really well as they dominated the majority of the first half, with Serge Gnabry sending an early header into the Costa Rican goal in the 10th minute seemingly setting the Germans on the path to a certain and much-needed win. The team did well to maintain this lead and end the first half with the scorecard reading 1-0 in their favor.
However, there was a surprising resurgence by Costa Rica in the second half, as they managed to level the score after Yeltsin Tejeda scored the opening goal for Costa in the 58th minute. Things became worse for the Germans as they suddenly saw themselves trailing 2-1 after an inadvertent own goal by Manuel Neuer in the 70th minute remarkably put Costa Rica ahead in the score tally.
However, the Germans soon fought back from the depth as Kai Havertz scored two goals in quick succession to put his team ahead on the scoreboard. The Chelsea forward turned the game around for Germany with two clinical goals at 73 and 85 minutes, which was quickly followed up by the fourth German goal by fellow substitute Niclas Fullkrug in the 89th minute, taking the Germans 4-2 over Costa Rica.
11 minutes of extra time was added to the second half and the Costa Ricans fought hard to close the gap in the score line. The Germans on the other hand did pretty well to defend the score until the referee blew the final whistle to signal the end of the thrilling contest with the final scoreboard reading 4-2. Germany has scored a much-needed emphatic victory over the Costa Ricans and was hoping that it would take them through to the knockout stages. However, a Japanese victory over the Spaniards on the other side dashed their hopes of proceeding ahead in this tournament, sending them home back early.
Germany had previously failed to make it through to the knockout stages of the 2018 World Cup as well, having won the 2014 World Cup earlier. Even though Germany clinched a thrilling victory by beating Costa Rica 4-2, they suffered a second consecutive World Cup group-stage exit, as they ended up in the third position in Group E; thus narrowly losing out on goal difference after Japan scored a controversial 2-1 victory over Spain.
To follow more such high-octane actions, controversies, news, and updates from the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022, stay tuned with 90agency as we bring all the details to your fingertips!