Fifa World Cup 2014: 10 records shattered in Germany’s 7-1 thumping of Brazil

A noisy population of 200 million football fanatics was silenced into disbelief some 30 minutes into the first semi-final of the Fifa World Cup 2014 yesterday, which ended with Germany humiliating hosts Brazil with a 7-1 thumping.

The Germans made the Brazil goalpost their temporary home during the first half of the match, with Thomas Muller (11’), Klose (23’), Toni Kroos (24’, 26’) and Sami Khedira (29’) catching their rival defenders with their pants down, figuratively speaking. And if that wasn’t enough, they came back to strike twice again, courtesy of Andre Schurrle (69’, 79’) in the second half.

There were tears and hearts were broken, but yesterday’s match also saw a number of other records shattered. Here are 10 records that were made or broken in the 90-or-so minutes that it took Germany to humble the aspirations of the host nation.

#1 Largest margin of victory in a Fifa World Cup semi-final

Germany’s 7–1 win against Brazil marked the largest ever margin of victory in a Fifa World Cup semi-final. It was the most lopsided semi-finals in a string of lopsided World Cup semi-finals. Brazil now has the ignominy of replacing the US, Yugoslavia and Austria in the record books, all of whom lost 6-1 in their respective World Cup semi-finals (the former two in 1930 and Austria in 1954).

#2 Brazil’s darkest hour of shame

The thumping loss is Brazil’s biggest margin of defeat ever (tied with a 6-0 loss to Uruguay in 1920), and it broke a 62-match home unbeaten streak in competitive matches going back to 1975, when Brazil lost 1-3 to Peru. In fact, Brazil have lost 1-3 on three occasions: 1934 vs. Spain, and twice in 1966 vs. Hungary and Portugal in the group stages. Their previous worst loss came in the 1998 World Cup against hosts France, which blanked them in the final, 3-0.

#3 Worst humiliation of a host

If this is how they treat their hosts, not many are going to invite the Germans over to their house. Jokes apart, the 6-goal margin of loss is the worst ever thumping of a host nation in the World Cup in any stage, leave alone in the semis. The previous record was a 3-goal margin, set thrice before: Uruguay 3-0 over South Africa (group stage) in the 2010 World Cup; Italy 4-1 over Mexico (quarter-final) in the 1970 World Cup and Brazil 5-2 over Sweden (final) in the 1958 World Cup. The match also saw the most goals scored against the host nation of the World Cup, with Austria defeating Switzerland 7-5 in 1954; the next highest was Brazil, who won 5-2 against hosts Sweden in 1958.

#4 Most goals scored by a country in the World Cup

The Germans now have 223 goals since 1930, three more than Brazil. Thanks to the efforts of Thomas Muller (11’), Klose (23’), Toni Kroos (24’, 26’), Sami Khedira (29’) in the first half, Germany passed Brazil in the all-time top scoring nation list before the first-half got over.

#5 A Klose call

Miroslav Klose of Germany scored his 16th World Cup goal to break the tournament’s individual goal-scoring record. Klose’s goal after 23 minutes made him the career scoring leader in the World Cup with 16 goals, one more than Brazilian Ronaldo.

#6 Fastest four in 6 minutes

It was the fastest four goals scored in World Cup history as Germany scored four (4) in the span of six minutes (from 23 to 29).

#7 Fastest five in 29 minutes

It was also the first time five (5) goals were scored in a 29-minute period of play.

#8 One minute, 9 seconds between two goals by an individual

Toni Kroos fired in his two goals just 69 seconds apart, the fastest in the tournament’s history.

#9 Germany rules

It was Germany’s highest half-time lead in a World Cup match, with their previous best being 4-0 against Saudi Arabia in 2002 (their greatest win, 8-0).

#10 As we said, Germany rules

The country also broke the record for most World Cup final appearances, making it all the way in World Cups in 1954 Switzerland, 1966 England, 1974 West Germany, 1982 Spain, 1986 Mexico, 1990 Italy, 2002 Korea/Japan and now in 2014 Brazil for a total of 8 World Cup Final appearances. They were earlier tied with (guess who) Brazil, which has seven World Cup Final appearances to its name.

 

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