Brazil’s perfect chance for revenge on Germany

Tuesday’s friendly against Germany in Berlin is about as important as a ‘non-competitive’ match can get for Brazil.

It will allow them to test there squad against one of the favourites for the World Cup in Russia this summer.

It will help some players acclimatise to conditions in Europe, where summer weather is by no means guaranteed to be balmy come June and July.

And it will give them the chance to take a measure of revenge against a side that gave them their lowest ebb in history four years ago.

A 7-1 humiliation in the World Cup semi-finals in Belo Horizonte still haunts the Selecao as a German whirlwind ended the match as a competition inside the first 30 minutes.

(I had a friend who was running late to watch the match and it was 5-0 by the time he got there).

And it still hurts. Brazil coach Tite said: “This has a huge psychological meaning — no one needs to fool themselves about that. The 7-1 from the World Cup is like a ghost. It’s present, people still talk about it, but the more you talk about it, the less this ‘ghost’ disappears.

“It won’t just be a sporting challenge, but a huge emotional challenge too. We are preparing to give our best performance, which will be important, but of course I also want a good result.”

OK. Loew’s side have a few sidelined players and some may argue that friendlies are no real examination of form ahead of a major tournament as many players call off and do not give their all to avoid injury.

The highly anticipated World Cup semifinal between Germany and Brazil turned out to be a lopsided, crushing defeat of the host country team, with the final score 7-1. - Reuters

But there is no way Brazil will be treating it that way.

This match cannot come soon enough for Brazil to lay down a marker and show there are real contenders to become the first team from outside Europe to win the trophy on that continent since their compatriots won in Sweden in 1958.

I watched them ease to a 3-0 win over World Cup hosts Russia in Moscow in midweek and they did not need to move out of second gear.

Germany will be a much tougher test, but with strength throughout the Brazilian team — from Ederson in goal to Roberto Firmino and Gabriel Jesus up front — they really should fancy their chances of laying that 2014 ghost to rest and build confidence ahead of their Mission to Moscow.