Atlético Mineiro's delegation was welcomed by a large crowd in Belo Horizonte upon its return from the tour
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In West Germany | |
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Game one | 1860 Munich 3–4 Atlético Mineiro |
Game two | Hamburg 0–4 Atlético Mineiro |
Game three | Werder Bremen 3–1 Atlético Mineiro |
Game four | Schalke 04 1–3 Atlético Mineiro |
Game five | Eintracht Braunschweig 3–3 Atlético Mineiro |
In Austria | |
Game six | Rapid Wien 3–0 Atlético Mineiro |
In Belgium | |
Game seven | Anderlecht 1–2 Atlético Mineiro |
In Luxembourg | |
Game eight | Union Luxembourg 3–3 Atlético Mineiro |
In France (including Sarre) | |
Game nine | 1.FC Saarbrücken 0–2 Atlético Mineiro |
Game ten | Stade Français 1–2 Atlético Mineiro |
The 1950 Atlético Mineiro European tour was an episode in the history of Clube Atlético Mineiro, an association football club based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in which it played a series of friendly football matches against clubs in Europe, becoming the first club of Minas Gerais and also the first Brazilian at professional level to compete in that continent.
Atlético Mineiro played ten matches on European soil from 1 November to 7 December 1950, touring through West Germany (where it took part in a Winter Tournament), Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and France (including the Saar Protectorate). The Brazilian team won six matches, lost two and tied the remaining, scoring 24 goals and conceding 18.
Having occurred at a time when neither national competitions in Brazil nor continental in South America exist, and in the wake of the traumatic Maracanazo, the tour and Atlético's results, many of which achieved under adverse weather conditions and snow, were seen by national sports media at the time as a historic achievement for Brazilian football.
In 1950, a commission formed by the German Football Association traveled to Brazil to choose a football club to a series of friendly matches in Germany against some of the country's club sides. The recency of both the Maracanazo, a traumatic event for Brazilian football, and World War II, in which Germany and Brazil were at opposite sides, may have made clubs from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, then the footballing centres of the country, refuse participation in the friendly tour. Eventually Atlético Mineiro, then state league champion of Minas Gerais, was selected. Canor Simões, a journalist and sports director of the time, was credited as influential in the choice.