For the third World Cup in a row, the world champions have crashed out at the group stage.

In 2010, it was Italy. In 2014, it was Spain. And in 2018, it was Germany’s turn.

It’s hard to know which elimination was more surprising but it’s fair to say nobody expected Germany to follow the trend this summer.

A shock defeat to Mexico in their opening game got them off to a terrible start but their dramatic 2-1 victory over Sweden looked to have got them back on track.

Surely they would come good when it really mattered and beat South Korea to ensure qualification for the last-16.

But no.

South Korea scored twice in injury-time to consign Germany to a 2-0 defeat, leaving them rock-bottom of Group F.

The inquests will begin immediately.

In fact, chief sports reporters from The Times, Martyn Ziegler, has already started.

He’s produced a column titled: ‘Arrogant, miserly, divided: why Germany crashed out’ explaining exactly why Joachim Löw’s side are going home early.

And perhaps the most interesting tidbit concerns Toni Kroos.

Ziegler was writing about Germany’s terrible 1-0 loss to Mexico and how Kroos was simply ineffective in his playmaker role.

But Ziegler claims that there was one teammate that the Real Madrid star ‘avoided’ passing to during that match

He writes: “There are suggestions that Kroos avoided passing to the inexperienced left back Marvin Plattenhardt because he did not trust him. Plattenhardt, who was winning his seventh cap, was substituted in the 79th minute and did not play again.”

Very interesting.

Of course, Kroos was temporarily Germany’s hero against Sweden with a stunning winner in injury-time.

But it all proved insignificant as South Korea dumped Kroos and co. out of the competition.