(REUTERS) – CHAMPIONS Germany crashed out of the World Cup after suffering a stunning 2-0 defeat by a tenacious South Korea on Wednesday that eliminated them in the opening round for the first time in 80 years and sent the football-mad nation into mourning.

Long the benchmark of excellence in the sport, Germany’s dismal campaign ended meekly, with stoppage-time goals by Kim Young-gwon and Son Heung-min condemning Joachim Loew’s side to finishing bottom of their group.

On a warm and sunny afternoon at Kazan Arena, some 42,000 flabbergasted fans witnessed the fall of a titanic team who had made the semi-finals or beyond in every World Cup since 2002.

Four-times champions and four-times runners-up, Germany were heavily backed to retain their title and add another triumph to Loew’s long list of honours.

Instead, they will head home after a scarcely believable failure, having also suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Mexico in their opener and only scraped past Sweden with a stoppage- time winner.

“At the moment … the disappointment of being eliminated is just huge. We need to congratulate our opponents,” an apologetic Loew, who has overseen a golden era in German football since 2006, told reporters.

“We didn’t deserve to win the title again, we didn’t deserve to get into the last 16.

“We wanted to win but we didn’t have what it takes.”

With the group going down to the wire, Germany needed victory against the lightly regarded Koreans to give themselves a chance of progressing.

Yet they scarcely looked capable of scoring, let alone going on to claim another trophy. They became the fourth champions in five World Cups to fall at the first hurdle during their title defence.

The German players trudged off goalless at halftime, with frowns on faces and whistles ringing out from the terraces.