2014 Fifa World Cup hosts and tournament favourites Brazil suffered the heaviest defeat by any team in world cup semi final history when they lost 1-7 to an experienced German team in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday.
Brazil’s loss was unexpected not only by the millions of local fans but also by the Germans who simply wanted to avenge their defeat at the 2002 World Cup final in Japan – South Korea.
Brazil’s players mourned the absence of the injured Neymar before kick-off, who play on Wednesday in Sao Paulo.
Thomas Muller gave the Germans an early lead before a period of utter chaos saw Miroslav Klose break the World Cup scoring record taking his tally to 16, Toni Kroos adding two more in the space of 179 seconds and Sami Khedira netting a fifth.
Many Brazil supporters, swamped with such anticipation as they gathered in their thousands around the ground hours before kick-off, were reduced to tears after less than 30 minutes, and reduced to such a state of shock that it was only at half-time that they registered their first serious dissent.
This equalled Brazil’s heaviest margin of defeat, a 6-0 loss at the hands of Uruguay in the 1920 Copa America, but the impact of this reverse, not just on the world stage but in their homeland, will put this alongside the 1950 World Cup final defeat by the Uruguayans in Rio as their darkest football day.
Muller’s early goal was a big enough setback, but the manner in which Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side crumbled in the space of seven minutes is likely to be a matter of national debate in this country for years to come
This was Brazil’s first defeat at home for 12 years. The loss for a country built on sporting pride, and at their own World Cup, will be bad enough to take. The scale of defeat will take the inquests to a new level.
The statistics stacked up like pieces of rubble around the feet of Scolari and his players. This was the first time a team had scored seven in a World Cup semi-final, and the biggest defeat in one of these games – beating West Germany’s 6-1 victory over Austria in 1954.
