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World Cup: Shocked media slams 'Disgraceful' Brazilians
Brazilian newspapers and websites were unanimous on Tuesday that the national team's 7-1 hammering by Germany in the World Cup semi-final was the greatest shame in the country's illustrious footballing history.
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"Historic Disgrace" read the massive headline on the website of the Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil’s most influential newspaper.
Brazil is the only country to win the World Cup five times but the paper pointed out this was not just their biggest loss but the heaviest suffered by a host nation at the finals.
"Brazilian football was reduced to dust," said main sports columnist Juca Kfouri, adding that Brazil was now one of two nations to have hosted and lost the World Cup twice.
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'Disgrace of Disgraces'
The Folha website had a picture of Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari signalling to a player with seven fingers aloft and reproduced a gallery of crying fans.
The globoesporte website, part of the Globo media empire, called the result the 'Disgrace of Disgraces', in an ironic reference to President Dilma Rousseff’s repeated claims -- and tweets -- that this would be the World Cup of all World Cups.
The hashtag they chose instead was #I Can’t Believe it.
O Globo, the flagship paper of the Rio empire, preferred to lead with the words of Scolari, who told reporters that he accepted the blame for the result.
"I'm responsible for all this," was the paper's headline.
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'Boys, you are immortal!'
Meanwhile, German media savoured the semi-final victory, describing the rout as a sensation and a miracle and - even though the final is yet to come - its players as immortal.
Top-selling Bild devoted six of its eight main pages to the match under the banner headline "Speechless!", summing up the sense of disbelief at the scale of the win.
A picture of jubilant two-goal midfielder Toni Kroos adorned the front page. "Boys, you are immortal!" read the gleeful column in Bild, which thanked all the team by name and coach Joachim Loew.
"Germany will never forget this July 8, 2014... Thanks for this moment of glory. Thanks that we could experience it!"
The paper dedicated a full page to each of the five German goalscorers in their red and black strip.
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'The Seventh Wonder of Football'
Daily Die Welt's website - the victory was too late to make many papers' print editions - called the match "The Seventh Wonder of Football".
It ran a picture of striker Miroslav Klose, 36, who netted once to become the tournament's all-time leading scorer with 16 goals.
In a country where, largely for historical reasons, outbursts of national pride are rare, Germans did not hesitate to treasure the win.
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'Off to Rio on a High'
Despite heavy storms, fireworks rang out across Berlin after each goal on Tuesday night and after the final whistle cars raced through the city with honking horns and German flags hanging from the windows.
Commentary filled the airwaves, with former players lining up to speculate on whether the squad is as good as the revered West German World Cup winning teams of 1954 and 1974. The Germans also won in 1990.
Germany hopes to go on to win its fourth World Cup in Sunday's final, which Chancellor Angela Merkl, who is regularly welcomed into the squad's dressing room, is expected to attend.
Looking ahead to that match, the online edition of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote "Off to Rio on a High".
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'Game of the century'
But some commentators tempered the celebrations with workmanlike reminders that the event that will define the team's legacy is still to come.
"If you win 7:1 you have done everything right," former national player Olaf Thon told Deutschlandfunk radio, adding the game would be remembered as a "game of the century". However, he cautioned not to take anything for granted: "But in the end what will count is who wins the final."
Germany will face either Argentina or the Netherlands, who play each other in the second semi-final on Wednesday.