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BERLIN. – Germany’s media reacted with concern and worry to the World Cup soccer holder’s shock 1-0 defeat against Mexico on Sunday. Hirving Lozano hit the winning goal after 35 minutes in Moscow when the German defence was caught napping.

This was the first time Germany have lost an opening game at a World Cup finals since going down 2-1 to Algeria when Spain hosted the 1982 tournament. Top-selling German daily Bild declared on their website: “Embarrassing performance against Mexico: this crash causes us World Cup worry”.

Munich-based newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung agreed with “There are reasons to worry” over a picture of the dejected German team, who need to beat Sweden and South Korea to be sure of going through.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper went for “Fiesta Mexicana: False start for Germany”.

Magazine Sports Bild commented “There were no world champions to be seen on the pitch” in a damning verdict on the below-par performance.

Yesterday’s headlines also spoke of mental discombobulation: “Nightmare at kick-off” (Berliner Zeitung), “Fiasco instead of fiesta: Die Mannschaft has lost its World Cup shine” (Morgenpost), “Wake up!” (Die Welt).

“In the past months there has been a lot of talk about boycotting the World Cup for political reasons,” wrote commentator Matthias Brügelmann in tabloid Bild. “But I did not expect that Jogi’s boys would turn that into practice on the pitch in their opener, of all matches.” – AFP.