The mouth watering encounter was displayed in Brazil’s famous Estadio do Maracana in Rio de Janeiro. The Maracana was packed with an outstanding attendance of 74,738 spectators as people trooped in from all works of life to witness football’s biggest showpiece. The opening ceremony was headlined by Shakira, as she took to the centre of the Maracana to perform her ‘La La La (Brazil 2014)” song for the crowd before the games of games began.
The much awaited game kicked off at 20:00 GMT +1 with Germany in their traditional all white and Argentina in their blue alternate kit. The game started in slow pace as the two teams played it safe in order to avoid making mistakes that would cost them the world cup. The best opportunities of the first half fell to Argentina. The first was a one on one opportunity for Gonzalo Higuian as he pounced on a poor pass from Toni Kroos but Higuian failed to punish the German as he fired his short wide. The second chance fell to Higuian again later in the half as he tapped in from a Ezequiel Lavezzi cross. The Argentine stormed off to the side to celebrate only for the goal to be disallowed for being an offside...it rightly was. The Germans also were threatening, but were lacking the final touch for a goal.
The second half kicked off with Argentina on the front foot as Messi found himself in a lot of space behind the German defence only to shoot wide with Manuel Neuer clearly beaten. The introduction of Andre Schuerrle for Germany made the Germans more threatening going forward as the Chelsea forward forced Argentine keeper Sergio Romero to make some fine saves later on in the game. The Argentines were presented a glorious opportunity to decide the tie but once again could not convert due to poor finishing from Rodrigo Palacio. It was not to be for either team in normal time as the game was dragged to extra time.
Germany pushed for the win in the first half of the extra time as much of the chances fell to them to put the game to bed. The 74,738 spectators in the Maracana and over 1 billion viewers all around the world had to wait till the 113th minute to witness the first and only GOALLLL of the game from substitute Mario Goetze as he connected superbly from fellow substitute Andre Schuerrle’s pinpoint cross to win the game for Germany. Argentina attempted to fight back but the Germans were more determined than ever to hold on to their one goal lead. Referee Nicola Rizzoli brought the game to an end with his whistle which was greeted with missed emotions from Germans and Argentine supporters in the Maracana.
It took 120 minutes of entertaining football to crown Germany as the new champions of the world. This marked the second time Germany would lift the famous trophy at the expense of Argentina (Previous time was in Italy '90), and the first time for an European team to lift the world cup on South American soil. The Germans are deserved champions as they showed consistency throughout the competition, scoring a total of 18 goals.
On a general note, it was a great world cup, with lots of memorable and unforgettable moments as the case may be (holaaaa! BRAZIL lol), Next stop is Russia 2018, but would it be as exciting as Brazil 2014? Well, only time will tell. ADIOS BRAZIL!!!!!!!!!!
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