Germany suffered a brutal World Cup penalty shoot-out defeat to Paraguay to end the four-time world champions’ tournament in Boston.
After suffering from a controversial VAR call in extra-time, to chalk off Jonathan Tah’s goal, which would have seen Julian Nagelsmann’s side go 2-1 in front, the last 32 tie went to penalties, with misses from Kai Havertz, Nick Woltemade and Tah enough to succumb to a 4-3 shoot-out loss.
The result leaves Nagelsmann on the brink, with immense pressure on the manager after speculation over his future entering the tournament.
And despite a first knock-out tie in 12 years, this huge upset leaves German football in crisis, thanks to Jose Canale’s decisive penalty, which secured the underdogs a memorable victory and sparked wild celebrations, with a last 16 tie against France or Sweden to come.
It is the biggest win in the World Cup for the South Americans, who reached the quarter-finals in 2010 and had not qualified since. Nagelsmann, who at the age of 38 became the youngest coach in a World Cup knockout stage in 40 years, opted for an offensive lineup, giving his team’s top scorer in the tournament, Deniz Undav, his first start.
The forward, who had three goals and two assists in the group stage, threatened early on with a curled shot as the Germans controlled possession as expected, and had their opponents pinned in their own half. While spending most of the time without the ball, Paraguay were content to soak up the pressure and do the hard defensive work as Germany plodded every possible route to their opponents’ goal but had no single effort on target in the entire first half.
By the 35th minute Germany, desperate to advance deep in the tournament after group-stage exits in both 2018 and 2022, had completed 244 passes to Paraguay’s 31 but had not managed to come any closer to breaking the deadlock. Executing their game plan to perfection, the South Americans, with Miguel Almiron back in the side after his suspension, stunned the favourites with a quick move down the right before Enciso powered home his header to score his country’s first ever goal in the knockout stage of a World Cup.
The small pockets of Paraguay fans, completely outnumbered by the white-clad Germany supporters, exploded with joy, pounding their drums as silence fell across large swathes of the stands. Frustration was visible among the Germany players as their dominance proved unprecedented – no team had ever completed 253 more passes than their opponents in a World Cup first half and still gone in behind at halftime.
They hit back nine minutes after the restart with Florian Wirtz floating a cross into the box and Havertz levelling with a glancing header. Wirtz delivered an almost identical cross in the 78th minute but Havertz’s header was blocked by keeper Orlando Gill as the game spilled over into extra time.
The Germans thought they `had snatched a winner in the 102nd minute when defender Jonathan Tah headed in a corner at the far post but after a lengthy VAR review the goal was disallowed for a foul on the keeper. The Germans saw Havertz, Woltemade and Tah fail to score from the spot before Canale, after two misses by the South Americans, kept his composure to seal their win.
Reuters contributed to this report
