World Cup 2018: 5 key takeaways from the Mundial so far

#2 The curse of the defending champions continues

Germany was abysmal against Mexico

In the last two editions of the Mundial and in three of the last four tourneys, the defending champions have bowed out in the first round with Spain, Italy, and France being the victims.

But if there was one team that could break this curse, it was said to be Germany with pundits going as far as to suggest that they could even retain the cup.

Mexico had other ideas though and Germany also fell to the defending champions' curse with a lacklustre performance against the devastating incisiveness and pace of the Mexicans.

To highlight how unlikely that defeat was, it has been 36 years since they lost the opening match at a World Cup; at the 1982 edition when Germany was still divided into two nations.

The worrying thing though was that the Mexicans did not shut shop after Hirving Lozano's opener and cut apart the fabled German defence time and again could have added more had it not been for wasteful finishing.

They need to wake up or face the scary possibility of becoming the latest victim to the curse with the Swedes who they play against in their next match, no pushovers.