Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman shared the shock of a nation over Germany's stunning World Cup exit today, tweeting "How sad!" after the defending champions' 2-0 defeat against South Korea. "Not our World Cup - How sad! There will be other tournaments where we can cheer again," Steffen Seibert wrote.

Football-mad Germany was plunged into mourning after the title holders were knocked out of the group stages for the first time since 1938. "A historic disgrace," Der Spiegel news weekly called it. "Speechless," read a tweet on the German team's official Twitter account.