Brazil goalkeeping coach Claudio Taffarel says that this humiliation suffered by Brazil at the World Cup 2014 still haunts the national team and its fans. After being very much regarded as one of the big favourites to win the title itself, Brazil were thrashed 7-1 by Germany in the semi-final of the World Cup.

The biggest event in world football has never seen such a one-sided scoreline at a later stage in the event. Brazil’s woes were not over after they went on to suffer even more disappointment in the third-place play-off at the hands of Netherlands.

The humiliation led to the swift dismissal of Luiz Felipe Scolari and in came former manager Dunga.

Since the arrival of the former captain, who led the team to success in the 1994 World Cup, there has been a lot of positive feeling around the team. Confidence has grown after a string of good results – albeit even in friendly matches – and the team arrived at the Copa America 2015 as one of the favourites – they were so well backed by punters in Europe that the Copa America even made the homepage of a Scandinavian betting site!?

As Brazil prepare for the quarter-final clash with Paraguay, the haunting memory of the World Cup 2014 latter stages may come back. Taffarel says that it is completely not beyond the team even after this good run.

“For us, it was never easy either. Yeah, we won the fourth World Cup title but, before reaching that point, we experienced some difficult challenges. Where was it that the fans threw eggs at our head? In Bahia? You know, we were criticised at times. We experienced mistrust within the group, which wasn’t so tight knit at times and we got past that. They’ve experienced many challenges. They lost the World Cup, they suffered that unforgettable loss, and they are still carrying all that weight,” said the goalkeeping coach ahead of the quarter-final with Paraguay.