July 16: World Cup diary... What the favela!?

Magic Moment

The look on Mario Gotze’s face after he’d scored the winning goal. The 22-year-old didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or just keep on running. What do you do, though, when you’ve just fulfilled the dream of every football-loving boy across the globe?

What the favela?!

Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski’s  mock kiss during their team’s celebrations. I mean, there’s normal humour and there’s German humour... but that, fellas, was neither.

Beach bum

Lionel Messi looks like a tired genius right now. It’s easy to forget how long he has been at the top and at 27, he looks like a man in need of a long holiday. One big chance to put Argentina on the scoresheet was squandered and after that he faded. Remains a legend but expectation looked like it weighed heavy in Brazil.

They said what?

“We started this project 10 years ago and what has happened today is the result of many years’ work, starting with [former manager] Jurgen Klinsmann. We’ve made constant progress, we believed in the project, we worked a lot and, if any group deserves it, it’s this team.” — Germany manager Joachim Low hails his World Cup-winning side.

Stat attack

736

passes completed by Germany compared to 416 for Argentina during the World Cup final.

12

deliveries into the box from Germany compared to five by Argentina.

64

‘dangerous attacks’ by Germany. Argentina had just 30, according to FIFA’s own analysis.