“It’s like a window that opened up in a country of great inequalities when there was not even education offered to this stratum of the population, (so) it’s very dear to the population. They have understood that the World Cup cannot, on its own, be a panacea for all Brazil’s problems and inequalities. But it helps to move forward.”

Transport, largely, has worked and so has the organisation. Brazilians are starting to take pride in what has been achieved and put on show for the visiting world.

Early fan and tourist arrivals from abroad were surprised by an apparent lack of fervour within the country for the World Cup.

Certainly, Brazilians everywhere — man and women, boys and girls — proudly wear the yellow shirt in their daily lives, at work and at home. But that was it.

Now many alleys and lanes of the favelas (slums) are festooned with yellow and green ribbons and cars can be seen with small Brazilian flags flying from the windows. But that was not the case at the start: the World Cup has been a slow burn.

Brazil’s own achievement in reaching the semi-finals has kept that flame alive and — win or lose against Germany here in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday — they will go to the last weekend even if “only” for Saturday’s third-place play-off rather than Sunday’s final.

This has been a relief for Fifa though questions will go on long beyond the tournament about some of the inadequate refereeing.

This includes the Spaniard, Carlos Velasco Carballo, whose failure to keep control of the Brazil-Colombia quarter-final was directly to blame for Neymar’s exit from the finals with a back injury.

Brazilians are not so much angry about Neymar’s absence as depressed. Still they have been reminded, as old hero Tostao told me, that in 1962 Pele was injured in the second group game and ruled out of the finals.

Amarildo, his young deputy, stepped in to score crucial goals all the way through to, and in, the victory over Czechoslovakia in the final. Who knows, they say, maybe Neymar’s injury is a good omen.

Just another example of the positive thinking that has changed the mood on the streets.