The curse of the World Cup’s defending champion strikes again!

Germany has suffered a huge setback in their World Cup title defense following a 1-0 defeat in their opening group game against Mexico. Die Mannschaft - who have been tipped as favorites to top Group E - failed to make a statement of intent by canceling out Hirving Lozano’s first-half strike.

The defending champions looked uncharacteristically disjointed and vulnerable and mostly had to deal with Mexico’s quick-paced attacks although they had a few goalscoring opportunities of their own. Sunday’s upset has subsequently left them a tough task which requires them to get favorable results against both South Korea and Sweden if they aim to make it into the knockout stages of the tournament.

Per the historical books of the World Cup, the defeat in the opening match is Germany’s first-ever since they lost to Algeria in their first World Cup group game in 1982. They went on to reach the final of the competition only to lose by three goals to one to Italy at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Germany also joins Italy and Spain as the third successive defending champion that has failed to win its opening game. Italy drew 1-1 with Paraguay in 2010 after winning the World Cup in 2006 whereas 2010 champions Spain received a 5-1 thumping from the Netherlands at Brazil 2014.