German world champions hail ‘unbelievable’ achievement

Manuel Neuer hailed an "unbelievable" moment as Germany won the World Cup thanks to Mario Götze's extra-time winner over Argentina in the final at the Maracana.

Götze's fine control and shot sunk Lionel Messi and company and earned Germany their fourth world title.

“It is unbelievable,” Neuer, who won the Golden Glove award for the best goalkeeper in the tournament, was quoted as saying by kicker.de “The team has done superbly, not only the players, but also the team behind the team. At some point we will stop celebrating, but we will always stand up again with a smile.”

Captain Philipp Lahm added: "What we have done and how we have worked is incredible."

Lahm added: “Whether we have the best individual players or whatever does not matter, you have to have the best team. We stepped up time and again in the tournament, did not let ourselves get distracted by any disruption, went on our way.

“And at the end you stand there as world champions — an unbelievable feeling. The team has remained quiet and patient.”

Centre-back Mats Hummels had his work cut out against Messi and company.

“I am still completely trapped in another world, physically too exhausted to be able to rejoice euphorically. But that will come in the coming days,” he said.

“You can only be world champions when you act as a team. We wanted to make that clear to everyone the whole time and we achieved that, even if we got that little bit of luck in the final as we were already a bit waiting for penalties.”

Christoph Kramer, the midfielder who came in as a last-minute replacement for Sami Khedira only to have to go off in the first half, clearly very groggy, after a heavy collision with Ezequiel Garay, said: "I can't remember very much, but that doesn't matter now."