Fifa World Cup 2014 Final Match Prediction

Who will win – Germany or Argentina?
The Brazil World Cup 2014 is approaching to an end after a month of awesome football game with finest teams from around the world gathering in Brazil to compete for the desirable World Cup. Today the winners of semifinals – Germany and Argentina – will face each other at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. 

Germany will come into the contest as the favourites after thrashing host Brazil 7-1 in the semifinals. They topped their Group after defeating Portugal and USA, and drawing with Ghana. They went on to hit Algeria 2-1 in the round of 16 before sending off France in the quarterfinals behind Mats Hummels scored a lone goal.

At this point of time, Joachim Low's men are relentless. They are swift and any team will fear their dangerous weapon – counter attack. The way they thrash Brazil with a six goal margin has sent a message that they are at this point to be successful. They will be looking onward to beat Argentina in the finals and claim their fourth World Cup.

Argentina too are victorious in the contest, topping their Group F after beating Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran, and Nigeria in the group stage. They beat Switzerland in the round of 16 before defeating Belgium 1-0 to book a place in the semifinals. The encounter in opposition to the Netherlands was a nerve-wrecking one, as the champion had to be determined on penalties which Alejandro Sabella's men won. Midfielder Angel Di Maria, who has been impressive this World Cup, is likely to return to the squad for the final. The Real Madrid player missed the decisive match against Netherlands owing to a thigh injury.

Germany seems stronger on paper but no team can undervalue Argentina. Alejandro Sabella's men didn't let Netherlands to get in the semifinals, leaving Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie with not much room. They may arrive up with a tactic to stop their opponents' attack in the final contest and take reprisal for their crush in 2010 World Cup.
The two teams have met on 20 occasions with Argentina winning nine, Germany seven and four draws. However, Germany defeated Argentina in their previous three meetings in World Cups. Todays final is estimated to be a strongly contested game.

Eentertainingly, several predictions on the final match have tilted in favour of Joachim Low's men. Cortana, digital assistant on Microsoft's Windows Phones that has correctly predicted the winners of all the matches starting from kockout stage, has predicted that Germany would lift the cup today. They predicted ahead of the semifinals matches that Germany and Argentina would meet up in the final.

Search giant Google has also predicted that Germany will raise the cup today. It got correct in 13 out of 14 predictions, apart from the one between France and Germany. China's top search locomotive Baidu, which also has appropriately predicted the consequences of all matches since the knockout period, has given Germany 59 percent possibility to win the title, and 41 percent to Argentina.

Statistics:

• Germany are set to play in their eighth World Cup final; more than any other nation. They have won three titles.
• They have won just one of their last four appearances in the World Cup final (1990 v Argentina).
• Germany have now reached a World Cup final in each of the last seven decades (1954, 1966, 1974, 1982 and 86, 1990, 2002 and now 2014).
• Argentina are set to play in their fifth World Cup final, they have won two and lost two of the previous four.
• This will be the third World Cup final between Germany and Argentina. They met in successive finals in 1986 and 1990, with each team lifting the title (3-2 Argentina in 1986, 1-0 Germany in 1990).
• No other fixture has been played as often in a World Cup final as Germany v Argentina.
• This is the 10th time that teams from Europe and South America face each other in the final. Seven of these finals have been won by the teams from South America.
• Both sides will face off for the seventh time at the World Cup, the only fixture that has been played as often is Brazil v Sweden (seven times).
• Germany have won three and lost just one of the previous six World Cup encounters with Argentina (D2). Germany also won the penalty shootout in 2006 against Argentina.

• Germany had eliminated Argentina from the 2006 World Cup (1-1 AET and 4-2 on penalties in the quarter-final) and from the 2010 World Cup (4-0 in the quarter-final).
• The 4-0 defeat in 2010 is Argentina's heaviest World Cup defeat in the last 40 years (0-4 v Netherlands in 1974).
• Argentina have won nine out of 20 games against Germany (D5 L6), though. The last meeting (August 2012, Frankfurt) saw Argentina win 3-1.
• No side have kept as many clean sheets as Argentina in the 2014 World Cup (four, Germany have three).
• Argentina are yet to concede a goal in the knock-out stages at this tournament (despite playing extra-time in two of their three games).
• On the last five occasions that Germany have failed to score in a World Cup match, they have lost.

• The last time Germany scored in a World Cup match and lost was the 1994 quarter final defeat to Bulgaria (1-2).

• Germany are unbeaten in 17 internationals (W12, D5).
• Argentina haven't been trailing in any of their six games at the 2014 World Cup, Germany just eight minutes (v Ghana).
• Argentina have won four out of five penalty shootouts at the World Cup, Germany won four out of four (including the one against Argentina in 2006).
• Miroslav Klose has scored more World Cup goals than any other player in history and as many as the entire current Argentinian squad (16).
• Only Lothar Matthäus (25) has played more World Cup games than Klose (23, as many as Paolo Maldini).
• Klose is the only player in both squads who has already played in a World Cup final (2002, 0-2 v Brazil).
• Argentina's Angel di Maria and Marcos Rojo lead the way in terms of crosses attempted from open play, with Rojo's haul of 25 so far bettered only by team-mate di Maria (32).
• Thomas Müller has played a hand in 16 World Cup goals in 12 appearances at the finals (10 goals and six assists).
• Müller (2010 and 2014) and Klose (2002 and 2006) are the only players in history to score 5+ goals at consecutive World Cup tournaments.
• Müller is the first-ever Golden Boot winner to reproduce his number of goals at the following World Cup (five goals in 2010, five in 2014).
• Müller could also become the first player ever to win the Golden Boot at successive World Cups.
• Lionel Messi has been the most creative player at World Cup 2014, setting up a tournament-high 21 goal-scoring chances for team-mates.
• Messi has embarked on a tournament-high 65 dribbles so far, completing (another-high) 39 of them.
• No German player has created more chances for their teammates in the 2014 World Cup than Mesut Özil (15).
• Barcelona midfielder Javier Mascherano has attempted a competition-high 509 passes so far.
• Mascherano has also made the most tackles so far - 28.
• Andre Schürrle has scored three times in just 156 minutes of action so far at this World Cup.
• Only Tim Howard (27) has made more saves in the competition than Manuel Neuer (23).
• Lionel Messi has scored five World Cup goals to date, but none of them in the knockout stages.
• Angel di Maria or Sami Khedira will become the 10th player to win both the Champions League and the World Cup in the same season. Seven of the previous nine have been German (Bayern Munich 1974) along with Christian Karembeu in 1998 and Roberto Carlos in 2002.