BRISBANE, Australia -- When the final whistle blew, Germany's players looked at one another, turned to the bench and hoped for a miracle. But there wasn't one coming from the Morocco match in Perth, no late equaliser from Colombia to save them.
The realisation started to ebb through that their Women's World Cup had finished at the group stage for the first time in their history. A team that came to Australia with the billing as one of the favourites crashed at the first hurdle in a group they were expected to breeze through.