Tuesday's Brazil-Germany semifinal will forever be remembered for all the wrong reason in the land of the five-time World Cup champions as Brazil were completely taken apart by a superb Germany, 7-1, at the Estadio Mineirão in Belo Horizonte.

In what started out as a pulsating affair turned into a funeral setting just 30 minutes after the opening whistle as the Germans scored five goals inside the first half hour though strikes from Thomas Müller, a record-breaking goal from Miroslav Klose, a Toni Kroos brace and a goal from Sami Khedira. A second half brace from Andre Schürrle only added to the embarrassment for the hosts who suffered the most lopsided loss in World Cup semifinal history. The only saving grace for the tournament hosts was a late Oscar goal to avoid the shutout.

With Neymar injured and Thiago Silva suspended, Brazil head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari had to make some tweaks to his 4-2-3-1 and opted to have Dante fill in for Silva and Bernard for Neymar. Júlio César took his normal place in goal and was shielded by a back line of Marcelo, Dante, David Luiz and Maicon. Fernandinho and Luis Gustavo slotted in as holding midfielders while Hulk, Oscar and Bernard lined up as attacking midfielders in support of lone striker Fred.

Germany head coach Joachim Löw's 4-3-3 saw Manuel Neuer start in goal and Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng, Benedikt Höwedes and Philipp Lahm in defense. Bastian Schweinsteiger, Khedira and Kroos composed the three-man midfield while up front it was Mesut Özil, Müller and Klose.

The match started both teams pushing forward but soon enough Germany would strike first with a Müller goal in the 11th minute. A corner kick was looped in and somehow, the Brazilian defense failed to account for Müller who was all alone at the back post and the Bayern man had all the time in the world to club in a shot past Júlio César.

History was made 12 minutes later as Klose became the all-time World Cup leading scorer when he tallied his 16th World Cup goal. Müller laid off a perfect ball for Klose whose initial shot was blocked by Júlio César but the Lazio man would not be denied on the follow-up and it was 2-0 to Germany.

Nobody could have ever anticipated what would happen next as the Germans struck not once, not twice, but three more times in rapid-fire succession. Lahm crossed from the right for Kroos who hammered in a shot to make it 3-0 in the 24th minute. The home fans, already feeling dumbfounded by what they were witnessing, may have well packed up their things and left in the 26th minute as Kroos tallied again after a horrendous giveaway from Fernandinho who was stripped by Khedira who then set up Kroos for the fourth.
The whole scene devolved into an outright humiliation in the 29th minute when a Hummels challenge on Luiz gave Khedira the ball and after a smart touch from Özil, the Real Madrid man fired in to make the score 5-0. The first half only lasted 45 minutes but it must have felt like an eternity for Brazil who were shambolic from top to bottom and left the pitch with their heads hung to an avalanche of jeers and whistles from their home fans.

Desperate to save face, Brazil attacked to start the second half and had a good chance through Oscar in the 52nd minute only to see Neuer make the requisite save. A minute later Neuer stood tall again when he denied Paulinho twice form point-blank range, further evidence that it was simply not to be Brazil's night at any point during the 90 minutes.

But after that initial push from Brazil, Germany took back control and Müllr nearly completed the set in the 61st minute only to see Júlio César barely tip away the shot over the crossbar. Brazil's abysmal defending continued and the lack of any type of marking resulted in Germany's sixth in the 69th minute when Lahm easily crossed for substitute Andre Schürrle who had acres of time and space to sweep in his shot to make it 6-0. The Chelsea man then tallied his second in the 79th to complete the dismantling when he rocketed a shot from the left that glanced off the crossbar and into the net.

It was at that point that all the Brazilian fans could do was applaud the Germans, who arguably can lay claim that Tuesday night's beat-down of Brazil is the most dominating performance in World Cup history. Adding to the indignity of it all, the crowd shouted 'Ole!' with each completed German pass to complete the darkest hour in the history of Brazilian football.

One small bit of solace came for Brazil in the 90th minute when Oscar tucked away a goal to at least avoid a shutout loss, but the damage had long been done. At last, Mexican referee Marco Rodríguez mercifully ended the proceedings in a defeat that will surely reverberate in Brazil for ages.

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