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A week after the World Cup final, African teams continued their qualification matches for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. Rwanda overturned their 2-0 loss in Congo to win at home on penalties but were later disqualified for fielding an ineligible player, sending Congo through to the group stage where they shocked hosts Nigeria 3-2 while Uganda won 1-0 in Mauritania to reached the group stage where they earned a 1-1 draw in Ghana before putting 2 past their visitors from Guinea. Mozambique who had done well to share 4 goals in Tanzania returned from Zambia with a goalless draw but where held 1-1 at home to Niger who had earlier lost 3-1 at home to Cape Verde. Malawi were another team needing penalties after reversing their 1-0 defeat in Benin. In the group stage Egypt were beaten 2-0 in Senegal, who enjoyed the same result in Botswana, and lost 1-0 to Tunisia in Cairo while Ivory Coast who could only manage a 2-1 win over Sierra Leone were thumped 4-1 in Cameroon. DR Congo lost 2-0 at home to Cameroon but reversed the scoreline when they were visited by Sierra Leone 4 days later. South Africa won 3-0 in Sudan but the same result for Burkina Faso in Angola was even more impressive.   

The Central American Cup took place in the USA without the participation of the host nation and was won by Costa Rica who reached the final by topping their group on goal difference having only managed a 2-2 draw with Panama. Beaten finalists Guatemala impressed with a 2-1 victory over El Salvador and a 2-0 win against Honduras who had earlier been stunned 1-0 by El Salvador.

The Caribbean qualifiers continued with Suriname being held 1-1 by Barbados before suffering a shocking 3-2 defeat to Bonaire and finishing bottom of the group despite playing out a goalless draw against group hosts and winners Martinique who had only managed a 3-2 win against Barbados. Curaçao won the group hosted by Puerto Rico after drawing 2-2 with their hosts, upsetting Grenada 2-1 and holding French Guiana to a goalless draw while the big surprise in Antigua was Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' 1-0 victory over the Dominican Republic. Guyana were a huge disappointment in Saint Kitts, firing blanks against Dominica before losing 2-0 to Saint Lucia and group hosts Saint Kitts who had earlier demolished Dominica 5-0 in the group.

In Europe the road to France began with some astonishing results that shook the rankings as Portugal were humiliated 1-0 at home to Albania and Cyprus returned from Bosnia and Herzegovina with a 2-1 triumph while England rolled the Swiss over 2-0 in Basel. Romania and Slovakia each won by a single goal to nil in Greece and Ukraine respectively while Turkey were frozen 3-0 in Iceland. Northern Ireland enjoyed a 2-1 win in Hungary while the Dutch who had lost a friendly 2-0 in Italy went down 2-1 to a late goal in the Czech Republic. World champions Germany who lost their homecoming friendly 4-2 to World Cup finalists Argentina began their campaign for France 2016 with a 2-1 win over Scotland in Dortmund while Italy won 2-0 in Norway and Slovenia lost 1-0 to their hosts in Estonia. The Republic of Ireland and Bulgaria were 2-1 winners in Georgia and Azerbaijan respectively while Moldova lost 2-0 in Montenegro and Sweden earned a 1-1 draw in Austria. Robert Lewandowski scored 4 times as Poland put 7 past new boys Gibraltar in Portugal while among friendly matches Brazil beat Colombia 1-0 in Florida, Sri Lanka enjoyed a 2-1 victory in Seychelles, Suriname registered a 1-0 win in French Guiana and the Northern Mariana Islands picked up a 2-1 win over Macao in an East Asian Cup qualifier in Guam. Myanmar cruised 4-1 past Palestine in the Philippine Peace Cup to reach the final where they defeated their hosts 3-2 in extra time.

Germany on top of the world

Never before had a European country lifted the World Cup outside their own continent, but with the expectation of a nation weighing heavily on the shoulders of Brazil, the hosts failed to deliver in their own backyard and were demolished 7-1 by the Germans in a semi-final that will go down as Brazil’s most embarrassing result of all time.

The failure of reigning champions Spain to get out of group B was no surprise to anyone following the Ziaian football rankings as Chile and the Netherlands were clearly above the Spaniards at the start of the tournament, but the magnitude of their defeat to the Dutch signified a clear shift in power with the Dutch topping the group after a 2-0 victory over Chile and Spain going home with a 3-0 consolation win against Australia. A less than convincing Brazil won group A but Croatia who had put 4 past a hapless Cameroon side showed very little ambition in their final match and were swept aside 3-1 by Mexico. In group C Ivory Coast upset Japan 2-1 but were edged out 2-1 by Greece who had been easily beaten 3-0 by Colombia in their first match. Group D turned out to be the upside-down group with Costa Rica finishing top after shocking Uruguay 3-1, stunning Italy 1-0 and holding bottom team England to a goalless draw after the English had lost 2-1 to Italy and Uruguay. The Costa Ricans reached the last 8 where they went out to the Netherlands on penalties while a biteless Uruguayan team lost 2-0 in the round of 16 to the exciting Colombians who were beaten 2-1 by the hosts in the next round. Switzerland overcame Ecuador 2-1 and were brushed aside 5-2 by France before easing 3-0 past Honduras to progress from group E behind the French who could only manage a goalless draw against Ecuador in their last group match. A single German goal ended French hopes in the quarter-final stage. Bosnia & Herzegovina got the better of Iran 3-1 but were eliminated from group F having already lost 1-0 to Nigeria who went through behind Argentina. Germany started group G with an emphatic 4-0 win over Portugal but shared 4 goals with Ghana in their next match while in group H South Korea earned a point with a 1-1 draw against Russia but were defeated 4-2 by a gutsy Algerian side who were beaten 2-1 after taking Germany to extra time in the next round.

After their humiliating 7-1 semi-final crushing, Brazil attempted in vain to salvage some pride, but were outclassed 3-0 by the Dutch who finished third while Germany won the final with a single goal in extra time against an inept Argentina.