Right. Where to start with that then?
I thought Germany would win. I thought Brazil would fall short after going behind. Nobody saw Germany going on to put seven goals past them though.
And it could have been worse. Júlio Cúsar made a couple of decent saves and Mesut Özil missed a good chance late on. That said, Manuel Neuer also made two fine saves, but with Germany already 5-0 up, they didn’t really make much difference.
Yes, Brazil missed Neymar. Of course they did. More obviously given their woeful defending, they also missed Thiago Silva, but they played like a group who had never played together. No shape, no discipline, and seemingly at times no desire to get to the ball first.
No wonder they were booed off the park and the Brazilian fans (those that were still in the stadium, that is) started cheering German passes in the second half.
Credit to Germany, though. They weathered the early storm and then were outstanding. Utterly ruthless, they looked like scoring almost every time they surged forward. They kept hunting for goals and looked pretty pissed off when they conceded one late on.
Nothing Brazil tried came off. Even switching to anti-football for a period in the first half when they dived and fouled proved fruitless. So bad was David Luiz’s performance that when he aimed a petulant retaliatory swipe at Thomas Müller, he missed.
It was, surely, the most humiliating exit from a global tournament by a host country. England’s exit from the 1999 Rugby World Cup at the hands (and boot) of Jannie de Beer and the South Africans was bad, but the game wasn’t even played in England.
Great Britain’s 9-2 thrashing by the Dutch in the semi-finals of the 2012 Olympic men’s hockey tournament was a huge disappointment, but given the relative rankings of the two sides, it wasn’t as big a shock.
Germany went on to win that competition, by the way, and there’s every chance they might win this one too.