BBC Sport: Greatest moments of the decade: Brazil 1-7 Germany, World Cup semi-final

[Jedi]

In the latest in a series looking back at some of the biggest sporting moments of the decade, chief football writer Phil McNulty revisits the night of 8 July 2014, when hosts Brazil were humbled 7-1 in the World Cup semi-finals by eventual champions Germany.

The theme of redemption was the thread running through the 2014 World Cup in Brazil - the chance to heal a wound that had scarred a sporting nation for 64 years.
Despite all their success, Brazil had never fully recovered from the loss to Uruguay in their own iconic Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro in the 1950 final.

With the tournament's return, this was the summer when football was going to dance to the samba beat with a sixth World Cup triumph - but, significantly, this one would be won in front of Brazil's own fans in their own football temple. It really was coming home.

Instead, on a balmy July night in Belo Horizonte, the city built on hills, a drama unfolded that will never be forgotten by anyone who witnessed it, whether in the sprawling Estadio Mineirao or among the millions watching elsewhere in the vast country.

And for this observer, if there is one occasion to take away and keep forever, it is the night Germany inflicted a 7-1 World Cup semi-final humiliation on the hosts, their first competitive home defeat in 39 years.

No-one saw defeat on such a scale. Every Brazilian you met felt coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who led the nation to World Cup glory in 2002, and his team were guided by destiny.

How wrong they were.

I was there - Brazil 1-7 Germany

BBC chief football writer Phil McNulty recalls the day hosts Brazil were humiliated in the 2014 World Cup semi-finals.

www.bbc.co.uk