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Thursday, November 12, 2026Nov 12

Germany delighted, astonished by Brazil rout

German soccer fans celebrate after their team scores at the Brazil World Cup semi final being played in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, between Germany and Brazil at a public viewing event called 'Fan Mile' in Berlin, Tuesday, July 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
German soccer fans celebrate after their team scores at the Brazil World Cup semi final being played in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, between Germany and Brazil at a public viewing event called 'Fan Mile' in Berlin, Tuesday, July 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) German soccer fans celebrate after their team scores at the Brazil World Cup semi final being played in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, between Germany and Brazil at a public viewing event called 'Fan Mile' in Berlin, Tuesday, July 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

BERLIN (AP) – Germans awoke on Wednesday to discover the 7-1 demolition of Brazil in their World Cup semifinal was not a delightful dream but a scarcely believable reality.

The front-page headline in the country’s biggest-selling newspaper, Bild, read simply: “7-1. No words for it!”

The paper dedicated the next six pages to pictures of the Germany players scoring and celebrating, and marked veteran striker’s Miroslav Klose’s record-breaking 16th World Cup goal by offering readers a poster of “Miro Klose, Football God!”

When it finally got to words, it declared the team “immortal” and wrote: “This 7-1 is worth as much as a title.”

Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup as both player and coach, tweeted: “What was that? Hard to believe.”