World Cup 2018: 3 reasons why Germany were sent packing by South Korea

#2 Lack of creativity to unlock the door

Ozil failed to replicate his stellar performances from four years ago.

With Ozil coming back into the side, we'd expected the quality in the final third to be too much for South Korea to deal with. With Kroos pulling the strings in midfield, logic suggested that Germany would overpower the Asians.

Far from it. The Koreans were in the faces of the champions right from the off. They held their shape and flooded the areas surrounding their own penalty box with numbers. This ill-afforded the maestro, Ozil, to drop into space between the two banks of four and pick the telling pass.

The Koreans made sure to not leave too much space between the rear-guard and their midfield and that worked perfectly as Kroos and his compatriot failed to split the defence with their vision and creativity.

It meant that Germany had to plot a way towards the opposition goal from the wings and that is where the absence of the dynamic winger and Young Player of the Year in England, Leroy Sane, was glaring.