GERMANY beat Costa Rica 4-2 in their Group E encounter on Thursday evening.

In the end it didn’t matter to either nation as their fate was out of their own hands, thanks to the situation in the other match in their group.

At one stage, it looked like soccer normality had been restored as Germany and Spain were consigning ‘upstarts’ Japan and Costa Rica to the scrap heap.

This as Germany, applying plenty of early pressure, grabbed a goal with the stopwatch on 10 minutes, through Serge Gnabry (1-0).

The goal temporarily put Germany into second place on the log and a chance of progressing.

By the way, the game was being handled by Stephanie Frappart, the first woman to ever referee a World Cup match.

With Gnabry and the exciting youngster Jamal Musiala cutting swathes through the Costa Rican defence, a second goal was always imminent, and by the 15^th minute Germany had already fired seven shots, five of them on target.

Keylor Navas in the Costa Rican goal was earning his not insignificant salary.

But the second never came for Germany before the break and they had Manuel Neuer to thank for fisting away a terrific Keysher Fuller blast.

The previous four-time champs were stunned when Costa Rica equalised in the 53^rd minute through Yeltsin Tejeda.

By this time, German fans knew Japan have gone ahead of Spain and they suddenly all become Spanish supporters, knowing Japan need to be beaten for Germany to have a chance.

It gets worse as Costa Rica score again and Germany trails 2-1.

It’s almost a shot a minute from the Germans with Muller, Rudiger and Musilia – who hit the woodwork twice – all denied by Navas.

Kyle Havertz was brought on and immediately Germany look a better side.

Havertz does in fact score twice (3-2) and has one stopped by the face of Navas, who knew nothing about the save until the feeling came back.

At this stage, the corner count was 13 to one in favour of the dominant Germans.

Niclas Fullkrug also bagged one to make it 4-2, but it was Spain who needed to score to knock Japan out and save Germany’s bacon, or bloedwurst; but it never happened.

Spain knew they were through and had no desire to meet Germany in the latter stages of the competition.