It's been a tournament of shocks, penalties and goals galore, and no one will be forgetting Russia 2018 in a hurry.

Argentina just about scraped through their group, while Spain were dumped out on penalties by the hosts after some less than uninspiring performances.

Croatia and England have both made unexpected progress and will compete in the semi-final on Wednesday almost against all odds.

But the biggest surprise of all was that Germany, the four-time winners and current holders, were knocked out at the group stage for the first time since 1938.

Die Mannschaft even finished bottom of the pile behind Sweden, Mexico and South Korea, and while Joachim Low will remain in charge they are expectedly suffering a bit of a backlash from the media.

As is the case when Arsenal underperform, Mesut Ozil is taking a lot of the flak.

Germany's team manager Oliver Bierhoff even claimed he regretted picking him, and Ozil's father has encouraged him to quit them because of how much he is criticised.

It all started when he and Ilkay Gundogan were pictured with the Turkish president, given their heritage, and it was met with fury in Germany.

One person you wouldn't expect to speak about the former Real Madrid man negatively is Arsene Wenger, though even he has waded into the debate.

Wenger took Ozil to Arsenal for £42.5m five years ago, and he admitted he was frustrated with the lack of freedom that Ozil played with in Russia, due mainly to the pressure on his back.

"I know Ozil well, he is a fantastic, exceptional footballer but him and Gundogan suffered from what happened before the World Cup," he started.

"They have been vilified in Germany. Ozil is a guy who needs support, he doesn’t need controversy. When I watched him play, I could feel that there were situations in the game where he could have moved forward, progressed more vertically. But he played safely.

"I always was thinking come on, that’s not the real Ozil I know, the guy who can kill.

"He did play alright, but I think he didn’t play with the complete freedom, he played a little bit with the handbrake on at this World Cup."

Fairly or unfairly, Ozil does always seem to get the blame when his team suffers due to his easy nature on the pitch, as he isn't one who mindlessly chases players around the pitch.

His quality is undoubted though, and his stats don't lie.

The 29-year-old has 23 goals and 40 assists in 92 appearances for his country, which is pretty impressive.

However, changes are afoot in Germany, and given how everything has played out it would be a bit of a surprise to see the Arsenal man return to Die Mannschaft.