The curse of the World Cup winners has claimed yet another victim.

Germany’s shock exit means that the three previous winners of the competition have now crashed out at the group stage four years later.

It happened with Italy in 2010, Spain in 2014 and now the Germans.

That’s why the World Cup is the greatest show on earth.

Even after losing their opening match against Mexico, Germany looked set to progress after their last-gasp win against Sweden.

But Sweden’s 3-0 win against the Mexicans meant Germany desperately needed another injury-time winner to progress against South Korea.

But instead, it was South Korea who sucker-punched them with two goals - first from a corner and then when Manuel Neuer had lost possession high up the pitch. 

It meant Sweden topped the group ahead of Mexico, with South Korea jumping into third with Germany rock bottom.

Wow.

Who saw that coming?

A man that probably didn’t expect this is manager Joachim Löw.

He led the nation to glory four years ago but confused football fans around the world by leaving Leroy Sane out of the squad altogether this summer.

But despite his future now looking onomous, he showed true class after the match.

His first words after Germany were dumped out?

“I think first of all we need to congratulate our two opponents who have made it out of the group,” he said in his post-match press conference.

He went onto admit that Germany simply didn’t deserve to go through.

“At this tournament, we didn’t deserve to win again or move to the round of 16.

“We were eliminated not because we didn’t want to win but we never had the chance to take a lead at any point – we were always lagging behind, trying to keep up.

“We saw Sweden had taken the lead so we needed to keep the pressure up but our team was missing the ease of play and the classiness we usually have. So, we deserve to be eliminated yes.”

Humility at its finest.

Well played, Joachim.