Tears of sadness and tears of joy. In the end, the best team won. Football won. Mario Götze cried after he scored the winning goal in extra-time for Germany. That was the first World Cup goal Argentina have ever conceded in extra-time.
Germany have scored 18 goals this World Cup tournament, the most for a team in one World Cup since Brazil in 2002. Germany also became the 1st European team to win a World Cup in South America, and the 2nd after Spain to win outside Europe.
Germany won the World Cup for the 1st time in 24 years after their record 8th final appearance.
Mario Götze is the first player to score a winning goal as a substitute in a World Cup final. He is the youngest scorer (22 years, 39 days) of a goal in a World Cup final since Wolfgang Weber in 1966 (22 years, 33 days). Sami Khedira is the 10th player to win the European Cup/Champions League & World Cup in the same season.
Argentina trailed for only 7 minutes at the 2014 World Cup.
There have been 8 matches that have gone to extra-time at this World Cup, a joint-record along with 1990.
Germany did not look like the team that beat Brazil and Portugal with big scores. Defensively, they were fumbling.
Road to Victory
The first chance for Germany to take the lead came when Müller was brought down metres away from goal. Schweinsteiger took the kick but managed to hit the wall.
After the free-kick, on the counter Higuain managed to get the ball across the face of goal.
Germany enjoyed most of the possession and when Argentina got the ball they would counter attack.
Argentina were the first with the corner. Lavezzi with the corner but Klose cleared it away. He got a second chance but handed it to Neuer.
Higuain who should have given Argentina the lead, sent the ball wide after Toni Kroos made a poor clearance.
Higuain was denied once more. He was offside.
Christoph Kramer was eventually substituted after he suffered a heavy blow to the head from the shoulder of Garay earlier in the match. Initially he came on for Khedira then came off for Schürrle.
Höwedes made a silly tackle on Zabaleta but got away with a yellow card. Höwedes was lucky not to see red. That would have been worse for Germany.
Germany were letting Messi roam free. They allowed him to weave his way around them, taking the ball forward and closer to the net.
A strong shot by Schürrle was pushed away by Argentina goalkeeper Romero.
Messi was left alone again, he ran with the ball towards goal but he was intercepted by Boateng.
It was 0-0 at half-time. 5 of the last 7 World Cup finals have been goalless at half-time.
Argentina made a half-time substitution with the introduction of Agüero for Lavezzi.
Messi continued where he left off. The ball only managed to move in front of the far post.
Neuer doing one of his sweeper moves, managed to catch a bit of Higuain after punching the ball away.
After 90 minutes and injury time, it was 0-0.
At the start of extra-time, Agüero managed to shoot the ball pass the face of goal. Minutes later Palacio had a better chance but he sent the ball wide.
Schweinsteiger had to leave the field of play bleeding after he collided with Agüero. Luckily for Argentina, Agüero was not shown a second yellow for his challenge.
Substitute Mario Götze controlled a pass from Schürrle with his chest and on the volley blasted it past Romero and into the far post.
A free kick was awarded to Messi after he was brought down by Schweinsteiger close to the danger area.
More tears were shed. Most of the Argentina team were crying. They got this far but it had to be Germany.
Germany 1-0 Argentina
