For the third successive World Cup Germany found itself in a medal position - silver in Japan, bronze in their own country and now bronze again in South Africa.

They were, however, made to fight for it by a Uruguayan team that emulated its 1970 forebears by making the semi-finals and losing the third-place play-off to the Germans. By scoring the first Thomas Muller became the improbable winner of the World Cup's Golden Boot, although Uruguay demonstrated their resilience by not only equalising but taking the lead through Diego Forlan's fifth goal of the tournament. However, a ghastly goalkeeping error from Fernando Muslera allowed Germany back into the game and Joachim Low's side killed it off through Sami Khedira, although Forlan struck the crossbar with what proved the last kick of an enthralling game. The question is how far will Germany go in 2014?