Germany was growing into the match

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With five minutes to go until half-time, Germany thought it had found a crucial breakthrough as Antonio Rüdiger headed home from Joshua Kimmich’s free-kick, only to have his goal ruled out for offside by VAR.

Spain seemed content to just sit in possession and ensure the match didn’t become stretched, though Germany had so far done very little to try and break La Roja’s resistance.

In fact, Germany’s best chance of the game came 10 minutes into the second half thanks to a Simón error in the Spain goal, as the Athletic Bilbao stopper’s short pass was intercepted by Kimmich.

The Bayern Munich midfielder exchanged passes with Ilkay Gündogan before firing an effort towards goal, but Simón atoned for his error moments earlier and parried the ball away.

But just when it looked as though , Spain found the breakthrough telegram database thanks to substitute Morata, who ran onto Jordi Alba’s low cross and poked the ball past Neuer.

With time running out for Germany and a result looking increasingly unlikely, substitute Füllkrug appeared in the box to latch onto a touch from Musiala that had fortuitously fallen into his path.

The 29-year-old Werder Bremen striker, who back in November became Germany’s oldest debutant in two decades, made no mistake and struck an unstoppable effort into the top corner.

It certainly is not the result – or performance – that Germany will have hoped for, as Flick’s team becomes the first Germany side in World Cup history to fail to win either of its opening two group matches.

Germany will know only a victory against Costa Rica will do – but even that might not be enough.