How it unfolded
Brazil went into the semi-final without Neymar, who had fractured a vertebra in the quarter-final, and captain Thiago Silva, suspended after picking up a yellow card; the players held up Neymar's shirt during the national anthem before kickoff. In the 11th minute, an unmarked Thomas Müller finished from a corner. The match then collapsed entirely in the next six minutes. In the 23rd minute, Miroslav Klose finished a counterattack for his 16th World Cup goal, breaking Ronaldo's record; in the 24th and 26th minutes, Toni Kroos scored twice in a row, the second an interception straight off a Fernandinho error. When Sami Khedira made it five in the 29th minute, less than half an hour had passed. In the second half, substitute André Schürrle added two more, in the 69th and 79th minutes, and Oscar pulled one back at the death. Much of the 58,141-strong crowd was applauding Germany's passing by the middle of the second half. It was Brazil's first competitive home defeat since 1975. Four days later, in the Maracanã, Germany beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time to win the tournament.
Why it still matters
This remains the heaviest defeat in World Cup semi-final history, and the most extreme collapse ever suffered by a host nation. Brazil was forced to rethink its reliance on individual stars and its entire youth development structure, while Germany's win validated nearly a decade of youth-system reform dating back to 2006 in a single match. In Brazil, "Mineirão" has since entered the language almost as a standalone word for catastrophe.