Mineirazo

Lore & Background

Both teams reached the semi-finals undefeated. Brazil were without Neymar (injury) and Thiago Silva (yellow card accumulation). Germany led 5–0 within 29 minutes, with four goals in a six-minute span, and made it 7–0 in the second half. Brazil scored a consolation goal through Oscar in the 90th minute. Miroslav Klose scored his 16th career World Cup goal, surpassing Ronaldo as the all-time record goalscorer. Germany overtook Brazil as the highest-scoring team in World Cup history and became the first team to reach eight World Cup finals. Brazil's loss broke their 62-match unbeaten streak at home in competitive matches and equalled their biggest margin of defeat (6–0 to Uruguay in 1920). Germany went on to win the World Cup, beating Argentina 1–0 in the final.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at the Mineirão hummed with a frequency that felt almost mechanical, as if the stadium itself had been rewired for this night. Klose stood over the ball in the 23rd minute, the yellow shirts of Brazil huddled in a shape that had looked impenetrable two minutes earlier. He struck it low, past a keeper who had been the wall for every shot all tournament. The net rippled. The roar of 58,000 voices, which had been a constant drumbeat since kickoff, stuttered. Then Schürrle. Then Schürrle again. The second goal landed and the silence that followed was not silence — it was 58,000 people simultaneously forgetting how to breathe. A woman in the lower tier, her yellow shirt soaked with sweat, pressed her palms flat against the concrete barrier as if she could physically hold the sound in. Beside her, a child in a miniature Brazil jersey stared at the scoreboard with the blank, uncomprehending stare of someone watching a familiar landscape dissolve. In the Germany technical area, Löw did not celebrate. He simply nodded, once, as a man confirms a calculation he had already made on paper, and turned back to his clipboard. The match was over. The World Cup, in a sense, had already been decided in those twenty-nine minutes.

Reader's Guide

The match is remembered as a national humiliation for Brazil, dubbed Mineiraço in reference to the Mineirão stadium, evoking the Maracanaço of 1950. Germany's win marked the largest margin of victory in a World Cup semi-final. Brazil's worst previous World Cup loss was 3–0 to France in the 1998 final. Brazil lost 3–0 to the Netherlands in the third-place match.

Did You Know?

• Germany scored four goals in a six-minute span during the first half.
• Toni Kroos scored two goals 69 seconds apart in the 24th and 26th minutes.
• Miroslav Klose's goal in the 23rd minute was his 16th and final World Cup goal, breaking the record he shared with Brazil's Ronaldo.
• Brazil had no shots on target in the first half.
• The match was referee Marco Antonio Rodríguez's final career match.