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The extraordinary manner of Germany's 7-1 thrashing of Brazil has been made clear as it emerged that Joachim Low's side made a half time pledge not to further humiliate their crest-fallen World Cup hosts.
Germany defender Mats Hummels revealed that during the break in Belo Horizonte and with the three-time winners 5-0 up, it was decided not to pile on the misery for the Brazilians.
Hummels said: 'We just made it clear that we had to stay focused and not try to humiliate them.'
‘We said we had to stay serious and concentrate at half-time. That’s something you don’t have to show on the pitch if you are playing.
‘You have to show the opponent respect and it was very important that we did this and didn’t try to show some magic or something like this. It was important we played our game for 90 minutes.’
Brazil 1 Germany 7 - How the papers reacted
The 25 year-old Borussia Dortmund defender added: ‘After our second goal they got confused. They were not organised on the pitch and after that we didn’t miss a chance until we scored the fifth goal. This doesn’t happen too often. You just have to enjoy it."
