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World Cup on Twitter

Chiponda ChimbeluJuly 14, 2014

The 2014 World Cup has broken records on social media, inspiring memes that have been shared by millions around the world. Following Germany's win, we take a look at some of the record-breaking events and popular memes.

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A fan with a smartphone
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

The final was a close match, inspiring its own share of memes and tweets.

Pope Francis and the Pope Emeritus inspired several memes.

And of course, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was also in the stadium.

Merkel took advantage of the event to discuss the Ukraine crisis with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But of course, twitterers had their own opinions about seeing Putin seated next to FIFA President Sepp Blatter during the first half. Blatter has faced a lot of criticism after allegations of a corruption scandal surrounding Qatar's successful World Cup bid emerged in a newspaper report in Britain's Sunday Times, while Putin has faced a lot of criticism due to Russia's involvement in the Ukraine crisis.

Germany’s win became the most discussed sports event ever on Twitter with a record number of interactions during the game.

And of course, Twitter wouldn't be quite the same without memes inspired by players - in this case Argentine forward Gonzalo Higuain.

The moments leading up to the final

The World Cup semifinal match in which Germany beat host country Brazil 7-1 became the most tweeted game ever with 35.6 million tweets. Germany's win on Sunday night wasn't able to top this, with only 32.1 million messages being recorded.

There's a good chance that this record-breaking event wasn't noticed for the staggering figures but rather the memes Brazil's devastating loss to Germany inspired.

#Timcahilling was inspired by an image of Australian player Tim Cahill who tweeted a photo of himself during the Germany-Brazil game.

It led to several copycats around the world.

But before there was #timcahilling, there was #Persieing.

Now, if you missed out on this trend on Twitter, you are probably wondering what the 93-year-old is doing on the carpet. He is the grandfather of Dutch forward Robin van Persie whose head in the Netherlands 5-1 thrashing of Spain in the first round inspired the trend.

The Dutch team is also responsible for another trend. Its 3-0 win over Brazil on Saturday resulted in the #jaspercillessensitsonthings on Twitter because their goalkeeper Jasper Cillissen was left with very little to do during the match.

Cillissen, however, was arguably outdone by Uruguay forward Luis Suarez.

Suarez grabbed the world's attention when he bit Giorgio Chiellini in a World Cup group game against Italy, and he continues to inspire memes.

And brands also jumped on the bandwagon.