First, The Netherlands takes on chastened hosts Brazil in Brasilia today, then Argentina plays Germany tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro.

In confederational terms, there will be much interest in whether UEFA's representative in the final, Germany, can follow up its stunning 7-1 semi-final demolition of Brazil by becoming the first team from Europe to win the most coveted trophy in international football in the Americas.

If it does, it will be the first time in the tournament's 84-year history that European sides will have won three consecutive World Cups, more than making up for the continent's sometimes sluggish start to the current competition.

In the Battle of the Brands it is still unclear whose teams will score the most World Cup goals in 2014.

After four low-scoring quarter-finals, Nike teams held an apparently decisive edge, leading their Adidas counterparts by 58 to 50 - discounting penalty shootouts.

After 80 minutes of the capitulation in Belo Horizonte, however, an avalanche of German goals had cut the gap to just one.

Then Oscar's shot, almost meaningless in the context of the match, once again doubled Nike's advantage.

Oscar's largely meaningless 90th minute goal in Brazil's 7-1 demolition at the hands of Germany has given Nike a two-goal lead over Adidas as the World Cup draws to a close ©AFP/Getty Images



The brand of the well-known swoosh now holds a slender 59-57 lead with two matches to play, though you would have to say that its chances of retaining this edge look pretty good.

This is because third-place play-offs, such as that to be contested in Brasilia between the Nike teams The Netherlands and Brazil, have a history of producing substantially more goals than World Cup finals.

The last six World Cup finals - starting with the last time Germany (West Germany as it still was then) played Argentina in the showpiece occasion - have produced a total of nine goals.

The six third-place play-off matches over this period have seen 24 goals scored.