Luiz Felipe Scolari begs for forgiveness after 'worst day of my life' as Brazil suffer 7-1 World Cup beating by Germany

Brazil manager takes fully responsibility for side's humiliating 7-1 defeat by Germany in World Cup semi-final

Brazil v Germany: Luiz Felipe Scolari pleads for forgiveness after
Humbled: Luiz Felipe Scolari pleads for forgiveness Credit: Photo: AP

Luiz Felipe Scolari described Brazil's humiliation against Germany as "the worst day of my life" and pleaded publicly with the fans of the World Cup's host nation to "please excuse us".

With a third-place play-off still to contemplate on Saturday, Scolari refused to say whether he would continue as manager beyond this tournament but said that it had been the "most catastrophic" defeat in Brazil's history. The former Chelsea manager also said that he was fully culpable for the 7-1 humiliation.

"Who is responsible when the team plays?" Scolari said. "I am. It's me. Who decided the tactics, I did. So the person responsible is me. If I were to think of my life as a player, as a coach, as a teacher, this was the worst day of my life. I'll be remembered probably because I lost 7-1, the worst defeat Brazil have ever had."

Scolari was also adamant that the result would not have been different with Neymar in the team, or that all the emotion surrounding the loss of his best player, had impacted on his team. "We lost a match to a great team," he said. "Even they were saying: 'We don't know how this happened.' We panicked and things started to happen normally for them.

"I don't have any regrets with the choices I made. They probably could have done that with Neymar in the side, also. He wouldn't have known how to defend those moves for the second, third, fourth and fifth goals. Let's not try to find an excuse in Neymar or the emotions. What happened was Germany imposed a fantastic rhythm on the game."

David Luiz, the Brazil captain, gave a tearful television interview after the match and apologised for the result. "Apologies to everybody, apologies to all the Brazilian people," Luiz said. "I just wanted to see my people smile."

Julio Cesar, the Brazil goalkeeper, described the result as "inexplicable". He said: "We had a blackout. We will go home, hug our families and thank the fans."

Scolari predicted that as many as 14 of the players would be involved in the next World Cup in 2018 but Juninho, a former Brazil international, predicted that it would be the end for some of the team. "It will be difficult to recover – some players I don't think will be back to wear the Brazilian shirt," Juninho said. "Germany taught us how to play football. We need to sit back, see what is wrong with Brazilian football. A lot of change will need to come."

Alan Hansen, the former Liverpool centre-back, said that the performance of Luiz – who is the world's most expensive defender – was "one of the worst performances I have ever seen". He said: " I've been watching football for over 50 years, the high point was the Brazil team 1970, this is the low point. That was a woeful, woeful performance that could not get any lower."

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