FIFA have confirmed the ball remained in play by the barest of margins during the build-up to Japan's World Cup winner against Spain on Thursday night.
Ao Tanaka found the net shortly after half-time to secure a famous 2-1 win for Japan and top spot ahead of Spain in their group. Despite beating Costa Rica 4-2 in the other group game, Germany were knocked out of the tournament on goal difference.
Many supporters believe Tanaka's goal shouldn't have stood as the ball appeared to go out of play before Kaoru Mitoma crossed the ball. The assistant referee initially gave a goal kick before the VAR officials discovered a tiny part of the ball was still in play.
FIFA have now released an image - which was shown in the ground - to prove the validity of the goal, but the host broadcaster chose not to show it. That means all those watching the game on TV - including anxious Germany fans - had no idea why the goal stood.
ITV, who broadcasted the game in the UK, spent several minutes looking at different angles of the ball to work out why the goal stood. One angle shows clear distance between the base of the ball and the white line, which suggest the ball is out of play.
Yet that angle is irrelevant. The only angle that matters is the one from directly above the ball, which shows a tiny fraction of it was in play. As per FIFA's rules, the whole of the ball needs to be over the white line for it to be considered out of play.
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The VAR officials were able to confirm the ball in play by using goal-line censors. Still, that will not stop Germany and their supporters feeling hard done by. Thursday night's result means they've now crashed out of consecutive World Cups at the group stage.
"I have seen a photo that must have been tampered with, it cannot be that this photo is real," said Spain manager Luis Enrique. "It has to be manipulated. I felt that something fishy was going on when the VAR took as much time as it did to decide."
Germany forward Kai Havertz was devastated with the result but admitted Germany aren't at the top of their game. They suffered a 2-1 defeat to Japan in their opening World Cup fixture and were fortunate to pick up 1-1 draw against Spain four days later.
Germany only got over the line against Costa Rica thanks to a late brace from Havertz. It's been a disappointing four years for the Germans, who finished bottom of their group at the 2018 World Cup and were knocked out in the last 16 by England at Euro 2020.
"When you go out twice in the first round and once in the round of 16, it's extremely bitter," said Havertz. "We have to be honest and say that for four years, everything hasn't been going well. Now we've been knocked out twice in the group stage. I don't think we're a tournament team anymore."
Germany manager Hansi Flick added: "We have just been eliminated. We can get up quickly and recover. We will see what the future looks like and how we can implement our ideas. We need to assess our World Cup and head in a different direction. This is the next step we will take and we will do it very soon. We need the basics again."
