Brazil lost 7-1 to Germany because they didn’t play well, admits Luiz Felipe Scolari
Former Brazil head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has confessed that his Selecao side lost to Germany in the 2014 World Cup’s semi-finals because they failed to play well. The Brazilians walked into the 2014 tournament as favourites but had to watch as the German’s lifted their fourth Jules Rimet trophy.
The Selecao did relatively well until that match in the 2014 tournament with them beating dark horses Chile, Colombia and sailed through their group stages unbeaten. Many expected them to compound that with their sixth World Cup trophy and with the quadrennial tournament held on home soil it saw them walk in as favourites but unfortunately, they lost in dreadful circumstances to Germany at the Maracana stadium in the semi-finals.
The final scoreline read 7-1 in favour to Germany with the nation revolting against the Brazil national team and it saw Luiz Felipe Scolari resign soon after. But, in a recent interview, Scolari went onto admit that the Selecao lost because they failed to play well and match the performance that the Germans put up on the day. He also added that while the game was even in the opening minutes, things changed after the first goal with his side quickly giving up after a mistake from one player.
“We lost because we didn’t play well, because we had momentary lapses of concentration. We lost because of the quality of Germany. We lost because we didn’t have the opportunity to position ourselves to make things difficult for Germany. I’m not going to look for justifications that are not the normal justifications of football,” Scolari told the Guardian.
“In the first 10, 15 minutes, we were playing an even game. Everything was equal until the first Germany goal. After that, we conceded three in seven minutes. Then there was a general pane. There was a mistake from one player, a mistake from another. We couldn’t stop them. Germany took advantage. They were a very good team. And that was it.”
The reaction after the game was understandable incredible especially given the fact that many expected Brazil to win it in Brazil for the first time in forever. However, instead, the Selecao crashed out in the semi-finals and failed to put up a decent performance in the third-place play-off, with them losing 3-0 to the Netherlands. Scolari further admitted that it was an equivalent to a footballing disaster for the country and that he was handed a lot of the blame.
“It was the biggest bomb, the biggest disaster that the Seleção has ever suffered, probably. In 1950 they lost, it was a disaster, but they lost 2-1. Because of the number of goals, [our loss] was different. Yes, yes. I was the person most closely associated with the disaster. I am until today. I was the one who took most of the blame. When Brazil won in 2002, I wasn’t the greatest hero. We were all heroes. [In 2014] I expected that all of us [would be blamed], that the press would acknowledge that Brazil lost. But that’s not how it was,” he added.