Brazil legend Pelé says “only God can explain” how the Seleção were beaten so brutally by Germany in last summer’s World Cup semi-final.
Without Neymar and Thiago Silva, the tournament hosts were hammered 7-1 by the soon-to-be world champions which triggered the end of Luiz Felipe Scolari’s reign. He said: “The semi-final was something nobody can explain,” the former Brazil striker, who won three World Cups during his illustrious career, told reporters at an exhibition event in London. When we were preparing for the World Cup the two teams everybody, even people who don’t know football, expected to be in the final were Spain and Brazil. Those were the two teams that were supposed to be in the final. But the German team, I saw them play two years before and they were very, very good. They were very well prepared. And then of course there was the disaster in the semis and it really was a disaster. It was something nobody could predict. Brazil could lose, 1-0 or 2-0, but to lose 7-1 and the third-place play-off we lost 3-0, it’s something only God can explain.”
