2014fwc_tsg_report_15082014_neutral

Confederation analysis 87
at the hands of France was followed up by
a convincing victory over Honduras in their
final group match. Just as it appeared that
their round-of-16 match against Argentina
would be decided in a penalty shoot-out
following 120 minutes of goalless action, an
individual mistake and some misfortune in
front of the Argentinian goal saw the Swiss
dream collapse late on. Belgium went into
the tournament on the back of an excellent
qualifying campaign, as a result of which
many people were looking for good things
from them, and they certainly went some way
towards meeting those expectations. The Red
Devils, who were a good blend of youth and
experience, cruised through the group stage,
saw off the USA in the round of 16 thanks to
better individual performances, but finally lost
to an early Argentinian goal in the quarterfinals.
Germany got off to a flying start with
a 4-0 win over Portugal, but they surprisingly
struggled against Ghana before going on to
dominate the USA despite only claiming a onegoal
win. In the round of 16, another African
team – Algeria – posed considerable problems
before the eventual world champions
prevailed in extra time. The champions of 1954,
1974 and 1990 did not have any such problems
against France, however, and they followed
that up with an historic 7-1 victory over Brazil
in the semi-finals in a match that was a fair
reflection of the strengths of the two teams.
The final saw them crown their impressive
performances with victory over Argentina.
Having seen Germany claim the World Cup
title and with a total of six European teams
reaching the knockout stages, Europe can be
more than happy with their performance at
Brazil 2014. They have finally also broken the
hoodoo that said that a European team was
unable to claim World Cup glory on South
American soil.