Mario Gotze scores only goal as Germany beat Argentina at the Maracana

 Germany deservedly lifted the World Cup because of a moment of brilliance from Mario Götze – Mario de Janeiro – because of the team’s resilience and intelligence, because of the tackling of the outstanding Jérôme Boateng and because Bastian Schweinsteiger kept going even when battered by Argentine tackles, even when bruised, even when bloodied as his cheek was opened up.

Germany also prevailed because of the hard work put in by the Deutsche Fussball-Bund since 2004 in transforming its youth-development structure, in calmly preparing inexorably for nights like this. It built football centres for kids, built up a reservoir of talent which saw Götze come off the bench, and built towards a fourth World Cup. A stellar team now has a fourth star to go on that famous white shirt.

Germans certain their team will beat Argentina

Life is a challenge these days in Germany if you are not a football fan.

 You simply cannot avoid it. The media is awash with interest in Sunday's World Cup final, with the 'Nationalelf' (national 11) involved against old rivals Argentina.

The stunning 7-1 semi-final win over hosts Brazil resulted in football euphoria only seen before in the country when West Germany won previous World Cup tournaments in 1954, 1974 and 1990.
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Germany's Thomas Muller and Andre Schurrle celebrate against Brazil

"Three days to go", "two days to go", "one day to go" - these have been the headlines from Germany's biggest selling tabloid Bild. It's the countdown to the final or the 'finaaaaale o-ho' as German fans always sing when their team reaches this biggest of big games.

Lionel Messi faces day of destiny for Argentina vs Germany

World's best player would merit a place alongside Diego Maradona and Pele in the game's trinity of immortals if he can lead his side to victory in the Maracana 

Lionel Messi is fighting history as well as trying to make it. World Cup finals have become desperately tight affairs: the last six, stretching from Italia ’90 to South Africa 2010, have produced only nine goals whereas the previous six, dating from Wembley ’66 to the Azteca in ’86, wallowed in 27 goals. Defences have become parsimonious. If Messi helps Argentina to become world champions, the 27-year-old rightly deserves to be hailed alongside Pele and Diego Maradona as the three greats of the game.

Brazil's worst nightmare defeat to Germany in World Cup History

 If you saw the game on television, no, you didn't imagine it. If you didn't watch it but heard about it, the rumors are true.

Brazil really did concede five goals in the first half hour of its World Cup semifinal against Germany. It really did get dumped out of the tournament 7-1. The dream really did end in little more than a heartbeat because of a devastating burst of brilliant attacking and utterly inept defending to form the most extraordinary outcome of all.

The World Cup is magical, the sort of thing that everyone should sample at least once in their lifetime. But not like this. Unless you are a diehard Germany fan you were lucky not to be here at the Estadio Mineirao as perhaps the proudest soccer nation of all was humiliated and had its heart shredded.

How Germany crush Brazil with Goals in World Cup history

Thomas Mueller wrote the ending to this semifinal match between Germany and Brazil in the 11th minute.

Sure, the four German goals that followed before the 30th minute sealed the deal, but Mueller's finish was all fans needed to see to know how this one was going to play out.

Off a corner kick, inexplicably unmarked in the goal box after a communication mix-up involving David Luiz, Mueller easily reeled in the ball beyond all Brazil defenders and calmly struck it into the bottom right corner of the net.

It was indicative of the way Germany would handle Brazil throughout in a calamitous defensive effort that resulted in a 7-1 loss for the host nation – the most goals scored on Brazil in 80 years.

"Everything was organized for us until the moment of that first goal," Brazil coach Luis Scolari said. "Then, we got disorganized and then we kind of started to panic and everything went great for [Germany] from there and everything went terribly for us.