World Cup rewind: Miroslav Klose beats Ronaldo’s all-time goals record as Germany thump Brazil

By David Stubbings
Published

The 2018 World Cup in Russia is nearly here. In the build-up to the most eagerly anticipated tournament in football, we're looking at a whole host of incredible records, players and moments. 

This time we look at a match which had gone down in history before the half-time whistle had been blown, never mind the final peep! It is of course the semi-final in 2014 which finished Brazil 1-7 Germany, where Miroslav Klose took Ronaldo's record for the  Most FIFA World Cup finals goals by a player.

8 July 2014 has gone down in World Cup, and football, history.

Hosts Brazil were taking on Germany for a place in the final of that year’s tournament.

The South Americans were without their injured talisman, Neymar, but even so nobody expected the mauling that was about to be inflicted upon them.

By the 29th minute Germany were an astonishing 5-0 up as they ripped the hosts apart, eventually going on to win 7-1.

Within that first half demolition, German striker Miroslav Klose achieved the record for the Most FIFA World Cup finals goals by a player. By netting Germany’s second, Klose added took away the record from one of Brazil’s favourite-ever footballers, Ronaldo.

At club level Klose - enjoyed moderate success. He spent much of his career in his native Germany, playing for FC Kaiserslautern and Werder Bremen before a move to Bayern Munich in 2007.

It was there he enjoyed his most successful period, winning two Bundesliga titles, two German Cups and the German Supercup during his four years with the club.

A 2011 move to Italian side Lazio yielded one Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) before his retirement from football in 2016.

Whilst he was never the most prolific goalscorer at club level, Klose had a knack of popping up with important goals.

He came up with a goal in Bayern’s 2010 German Supercup win over Schalke 04 and scored a 93rd minute winner against Roma to secure a 2-1 victory for Lazio in the Rome derby during his first season in Italy.

But it’s at international level where Klose will be remembered.

His World Cup career couldn’t have got off to a better start when, just days before his 24th birthday, he scored a hat-trick in Germany’s 8-0 demolition of Saudi Arabia during the 2002 World Cup.

Klose went on to score two more goals during the tournament, both coming in group stage matches against Ireland and Cameroon, meaning he finished his debut international tournament with five goals.

Four years later and Germany were World Cup hosts. This time Klose popped up with five tournament goals, scoring twice against Costa Rica and Ecuador in the group stages before a late equaliser in his country’s quarter-final against Argentina (Germany went on to win 4-2 on penalties, before being knocked out in the next round). As a result, he took home the Golden Boot.

Then, in 2010, he followed that up with another four goals, finding the net in the group stage against Australia, in Germany’s 4-1 win over England in the second round, before once again proving to be Argentina’s nemesis in the quarter-finals where he bagged a brace in a 4-0 win.

This left him on 14 goals going into the 2014 tournament, one behind Ronaldo. But a strike against Ghana in the group stage brought him level before he made it 2-0 in the 21st minute of THAT semi-final in the Estádio Mineirão in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

That strike proved to be his international goal which also left him as his country’s all-time top goalscorer with 71.

But what of the game itself?

Brazil had come into the semi-final carrying the weight of a nation. Led by Neymar, who scored four goals in the early stages of the tournament, they had brushed aside Croatia and Cameroon in their group before going to penalties in the second round against Chile and squeezing past Colombia.

That quarter-final saw the hosts loose Neymar through injury and captain Thiago Silva through suspension, but despite those setbacks they were still expected to challenge a Germany side which had finished top of its group after beating Portugal and USA, before being taken to extra time by Algeria in the last 16 and a 1-0 win over France in the quarter-final.

But a close encounter never looked likely.

There were just 11 minutes on the clock when Thomas Müller opened the scoring. Twelve minutes later and Klose struck to make it 2-0.

After that the floodgates really opened; Toni Kroos scored twice in two minutes to make it 4-0 with 26 minutes gone before Sami Khedira made it 5-0 before the half hour mark.

The shell-shocked hosts managed to keep Germany back until midway through the second half, but two goals in 10 minutes from Andre Schurrle left the score line at a remarkable 7-0 with 10 minutes still to play before Oscar netted the hollowest of consolations.

Germany’s victory left them with all sorts of records to their name.

Going into the match, Brazil had the Most FIFA World Cup finals goals by a team, with 220 compared to Germany’s 216.

By the end Germany had taken that record off them with 223 (later 224 thanks to a 1-0 win in the final over Argentina).

Toni Kroos’ double was the Shortest time to score two goals in a FIFA World Cup match, with his goals officially timed at 69 seconds apart. Indeed, there were less than three minutes between Klose’s strike and Kroos’ second.

And Germany also achieved the Most appearances in the FIFA World Cup Final by a team with eight, beating the previous record of seven set by, you guessed it, Brazil.

Brazil also now have the unenviable title for Highest margin of defeat by the host nation in a FIFA World Cup match.

This was Brazil’s first competitive home defeat in 39 years. Afterwards coach Luiz Felipe Scolari described it as “the worst day” of his life, adding: “I will be remembered as the coach to lose 7-1 but I knew that risk when I took the job.

"The person who decided the line-up, the tactics, was me. It was my choice."

Will something similar happened in Russia 2018? It’s incredibly unlikely, but football’s a funny old game.

Miroslav Klose World Cup goals fact file

  • 4 World Cups (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)
  • 22 starts, 2 sub appearances, 4 unused sub
  • 1,733 minutes, 16 goals
  • Korea/Japan 2002 - 5 goals in 7 games
  • Germany 2006 - 5 goals in 7 games 
  • South Africa 2010 - 4 goals in 5 games
  • Brazil 2014 - 2 goals in 4 games
  • Winner in 2014
  • Runner-up in 2002

All-time World Cup goal-scorers

  • Miroslav Klose 16 goals
  • Ronaldo 15
  • Gerd Muller 14
  • Just Fontaine 13
  • Pele 12
  • Jurgen Klinsmann 11
  • Gary Lineker 10