The football giants receives a wake-up call in the very first match

Moscow: Germany woke to gloomy headlines of "chaos" and "humiliation" on Monday after the defending World Cup champions fell 1-0 to Mexico in a shock opening defeat in Russia.Long used to the dominance of their national team, Germans are digesting their team's first defeat in a World Cup opening match in 36 years and wondering what will come next.

The same can be said for the other two football giants Brazil and Argentina, who are termed as favorites of this world cup.  The duo has not lost the match but drawn the opener to a comparative low profile teams which doen’t go with their persona on the field.

Brazil held to 1-1 draw by Switzerland in Group E opener

Rostov on Don:  A second-half header from Steven Zuber cancelled out a sensational early goal from Philippe Coutinho as Switzerland and Brazil drew 1-1 in a tight Group E World Cup opener on Sunday.

With 20 minutes gone, Coutinho gathered a clearance 25 yards from goal and curled a marvellous shot into the far corner off the post to give the five-times world champions the lead.
However, Switzerland, who had looked toothless throughout the first half, got back on level terms five minutes into the second period when Zuber rose unmarked to head home a corner kick. Coutinho had Brazil's best chance after the break but shot wide.

Iceland hold Argentina to 1-1 draw as Messi misses penalty

Moscow:  Tiny Iceland made a stunning first-ever World Cup appearance on Saturday when they held 2014 runners-up Argentina to a 1-1 draw in a dramatic match where Lionel Messi blew his chance to win it when he had a penalty saved by Hannes Por Halldorsson.

Sergio Aguero had given the twice world champions the lead after 19 minutes of the Group D match. However, Iceland showed exactly the same commitment and self-belief as when they stunned the soccer world with their run to the quarter-finals of the European Championship two years ago and hit back four minutes later through Alfred Finnbogason.

Argentina, playing in all-black and roared on by the vast majority of the crowd in the Spartak Stadium, eventually took command and delivered wave after wave of attacks in the second half but they actually created few clear chances either side of the poorly-struck 64th-minute penalty by Messi, who had a remarkable 11 shots during the match.

Iceland, by far the smallest country by population to appear at the World Cup, famously beat England in the last 16 of Euro 2016 and again inspired by their "thunderclapping" fans ran tirelessly and fought for everything to write another glowing chapter in their short but glorious major tournament story.

 "I hope it is going to prove important to us to reach our goal to qualify," Halldorsson said of the penalty save."I did my homework, I looked at a lot of penalties by Messi, and I also looked at how I had been behaving in previous penalties, so I tried to get into their mindset, how they would be thinking about me.

 "I think the Argentinians felt a bit frustrated that they weren't getting through and it was important we equalised so quickly. I guess our game plan worked almost perfectly."Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli said: "We need to find more variety of options going forward. It's a very competitive group.