JON SHALLARD in BRISBANE: South Korea proved Germany’s football nemesis yet again at the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in Australia and New Zealand.

A 1-1 draw in Brisbane on the concluding matchday of Group H spelled a first-ever group stage exit for last year’s European Championship runners-up. The Germans needed to match Morocco’s result in the other simultaneous match but that clash ended a 1-0 victory over Colombia.

Germany, world champions in 2003 and 2007, are ranked No2 in the world. Their distraught players, eliminated along wth the Koreans who had wrecked their dreams, collapsed in tears at the final whistle. Instead of Germany going forward Tuesday’s clashes in the round of 16 will see Colombia play Jamaica and Morocco face France.

The previous day’s action had brought another shock with the elimination of Brazil.

Five years ago a defeat by South Korea in the last group stage match knocked Germany’s men out of their 2018 in Russia. Germany’s men again to reach the knockout phase at their 2022 World Cup.

Coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s side suffered the worst possible start in conceding an early goal Cho So-hyun. Germany pulled level just before halftime with captain Alexandra Popp’s fourth goal in three matches. At that point Germany were qualifying as group runners-up.

Morocco, beaten 6-0 by Germany in their first game, then took the lead against Colombia which challenged the German to do the same. In the second half Popp did put the ball in the net but was denied a goal for offside by VAR; she also pushed a ‘free’ header wide as the clock ran down.

Popp said later:  “I don’t know what I should really say. I can’t really understand what has happened to be honest. No idea.”

Voss-Tecklenburg said: “If you want to see a disaster in terms of sport, it’s hard to argue against this. What we need to do is rise again and not give up. We love this sport. Of course you cannot expect a deep analysis yet. We need to let it sink in. I don’t want to look for excuses in anything.

“We were nervous when we started the game and I think that showed. That’s why South Korea took the lead. Maybe we were trying to force things but there was more a feeling that there was something missing. There was great intention but we lost our confidence. We did not find our game the way we wanted.”

The Koreans also fly home as well after finishing bottom of the group following defeats in their previous two ties.

###