South Korea gives Germany boot, while Mexico goes on

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Mexico is going on and Germany is going home. Both had South Korea to thank for that Wednesday after a wild day of World Cup surprises that eliminated the defending champion and breathed new life into a team that thought it was dead.

Mexico, needing only a point to win Group F and advance to the next round, was pummeled 3-0 by Swe- den. Germany, needing only a goal to push Mexico aside and take its spot in the second round, was shut out 2-0 by South Korea.

When the dust settled, Mexico was headed to the round of 16 for the seventh consecutive World Cup, while Germany was out after the group stageforthefirsttime…ever.that left Mexican players crying in Yekaterinburg, exhausted South Korean players littering the field in Kazan and

WORLD CUP

German coach Joachim Low looking for a place to hide, his 12-year reign atop the national team likely over.

Lost in the confusion was the fact that Sweden was the only country that really had reason to celebrate because its rout of Mexico made it the group champion. Sweden will meet Switzerland in its second-round game next week in St. Petersburg.

Mexico, as the group runner-up, travels to Samara to meet Brazil on Monday. For South Korea, like Germany, the World Cup is over.

“Thank God,” Mexico forward Hirving Lozano said. “(Korea) gave us the qualification. We now have to think about the next round and the opponent we have next. “

Added Miguel Layun: “It was a weird sensation. It’s a bittersweet moment, but we are in the round of 16.”

Mexico got off to a poor start, with Jesus Gallardo drawing a yellow card 13 seconds after kickoff, the quickest caution in World Cup history.

Mexico entered Wednesday needing only a draw to win the group after defeating Germany and South Korea in the tournament, yet it did not play cautiously, attacking for most of the afternoon. Though it outshot Sweden and finished with a 2-to-1 advantage in time of possession, it had nothing to show for that on the scoreboard.

That allowed Sweden to break open a tight game in the second half with goals from Ludwig Augustins- son and Andreas Granqvist as well as an own goal by Mexican defender Edson Alvarez.

That left the door open for Germany, which entered the final minutes in Kazan well aware of Mexico’s troubles and knowing it needed only to score to claim its spot in the second round. The fact that it didn’t get it wasn’t for a lack of effort, with Germany peppering the Korean net withfiveshotsinthefinalseven minutes of regulation.

In the relieved Mexican locker room, neither coach Juan Carlos Osorio nor his players apologized for backing into the second round.

“We qualified because we beat great rivals like Germany and Korea,” the coach said in Spanish.

After it got the news from Kazan, however, Mexico started looking ahead.

“We know that it is a very short tournament,” forward Marco Fabian said. “We can’t be thinking too much about what happened today, just like we couldn’t think about it too much about what we did with Germany.

“We have to turn the page. We have to think that in five days we are going to have the game of our lives.”