Like Argentina, Germany also got into big trouble and must not stumble if they want to avoid being eliminated from the second World Cup in a row in the group stage. The cliché says that you shouldn’t lose your first game in the World Cup, which is of course true. As for Germany, they lost to Japan and have to face Spain on Sunday and only then Costa Rica.
The latter is considered the weakest team at home and should not be a threat, but if and when Japan, who looked excellent, beat them, then Germany will have no choice but to beat Spain, which significantly complicates this home.
Statistics say that since the format of the World Cup was changed in 1998 (to eight groups of 4 teams, with two advancing to the round of 16), only 11 percent of the teams that lost their opening game also advanced. Spain is the exception and actually the only one that won the first game (1:0 to Switzerland) and also won the World Cup in 2010.
On the other hand, in the case of a draw in the first round, the percentages improve and rise to 59 regarding the chances of advancing to the next level. The teams that win in the opening round enjoy an 84 percent chance of qualifying for the knockouts, for everyone’s attention.
In the previous World Cup, a rather strange and rare situation arose, in which Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain and Portugal did not win either. The only one who did this among the majors was France (1:2 over Australia) who went on to win the World Cup. By the way, the tricolor has seven wins and four losses in the first 14 games in the World Cup.