Brazil 7-1 for glory in 2018 World Cup

By James Milton 10:11PM 9 JUL 2014

WORLD CUP hosts Brazil are still coming to terms with their 7-1 defeat to Germany and bookmakers are also trying to make sense of Tuesday’s extraordinary semi-final.

The correct-score market provided a great result for the layers with Ladbrokes offering the 7-1 Germany win at 1,000-1 before kick-off.

However, punters roared back in-play and bet365 were one of the firms counting the cost of Brazil’s shambolic defending.

Over 2.5 goals was trimmed from 6-4 to 11-8 before kick-off but the real damage came once Thomas Muller had given Germany an early lead.

Bet365 spokesman Steve Freeth said: “The overs market is always popular in-play and the sight of David Luiz marauding forward at every opportunity had punters correctly predicting a goalfest.

“We ended up behind to the tune of around £5m – a tenth of Luiz’s transfer fee to Paris St-Germain.”

Muller had been favourite to score first with most bookmakers – Ladbrokes were biggest about the German poacher at 7-1 – while Oscar’s late goal for Brazil landed odds of 11-10 about both teams to score.

Muller’s opener was his fifth goal of this tournament and before last night’s game between Holland and Argentina he was 11-4 to overhaul Colombia’s James Rodriguez and finish as top goalscorer.

The Bayern Munich man has now scored ten goals at World Cup finals and Hills offer 6-1 that he breaks team-mate Miroslav Klose’s record, which currently stands at 16.

Disappointed Brazil fans hoping to cheer themselves up with an optimistic bet can get 7-1 with bet365 that the Selecao win the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Neymar, who missed Tuesday’s rout with a back injury, is 12-1 to top-score in four years.

Immediately after the Germans’ romp, Ladbrokes went 9-2 that Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari would resign before Saturday’s third-place playoff.

However, in his post-match press conference Scolari said: “I’m sorry that we weren’t able to get to the final and we’re going to try to win the third-place match. We still have something to play for.”