Full Time
Paraguay knocked Germany out of the World Cup on penalties, winning 4-3 after a 1-1 draw held through extra time, and it's one of the great shocks of the tournament. Julio Enciso headed Paraguay in front before half-time and Kai Havertz levelled it for Germany with a header of his own, then a Jonathan Tah goal in extra time was chalked off by VAR for a foul on the keeper. In the shootout, Orlando Gill saved from both Havertz and Woltemade, and when Tah blazed his effort over the bar it was left to Jose Canale to send four-time champions Germany home. No red cards, just pure penalty drama. Paraguay go through to face the winner of France vs Sweden in the round of 16; Germany are out, and questions about Julian Nagelsmann's future will follow them home.
Pre-match Talking Points
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1Germany topped Group E without too much fuss — a 7-1 demolition of Curacao, a 2-1 comeback win over Ivory Coast — before losing to Ecuador in a dead rubber they apparently forgot to treat as one. They're through comfortably enough. Paraguay scraped in as Group D third-placers: hammered 4-1 by the USA, edged Turkey 1-0, then sleepwalked to a 0-0 against Australia. Lose here and they go home. For Germany, it's simply about not embarrassing themselves in the knockout rounds again.
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2These two have met at a World Cup exactly once before — the 2002 last 16, where Germany won 1-0 thanks to a late Oliver Neuville goal. It was exactly as tense and low-scoring as that sounds. That's the full extent of the historic rivalry, which tells you a lot about how often these two nations find themselves in the same part of the bracket. Germany lead the all-time head-to-head 2-0-0, in case you want to pretend there's a narrative arc here.
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3Jamal Musiala is the one to keep an eye on. He's 22, plays for Bayern Munich, and has the kind of close control that makes defenders look like they've been asked to catch smoke. What makes him interesting beyond football is that he was actually born in Stuttgart but grew up partly in England and played youth football for Chelsea before choosing Germany — so he had to make a deliberate choice about who he is. On a pitch against Paraguay, he'll be the reason Germany's attacks look dangerous rather than just well-organised.
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4Germany go into this without Nico Schlotterbeck, who tore ankle ligaments against Ivory Coast and is done for the tournament. That means Antonio Rudiger, who had an injury-plagued season at Real Madrid, steps into the back line at the business end of a World Cup. Paraguay, meanwhile, are without Miguel Almiron — the former Newcastle midfielder was sent off against Turkey and misses this one through suspension. Losing your most recognisable name before the knockout rounds have properly started is not ideal preparation.
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5Paraguay are at their first World Cup since 2010. That's sixteen years. In football terms, that's long enough that the players who were kids watching that 2010 squad are now the players in this one. They went out in the quarter-finals that year — beaten by Spain — and haven't been back since. They've come a very long way just to play Germany in Boston, and most people expect them to lose. That's either the end of the story or the beginning of a much better one, depending on how the next ninety minutes go.
Team Talking Points
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1Germany's World Cup ended in the Round of 32, and it was arguably the biggest shock of the entire tournament: a 1-1 draw with Paraguay, ranked 41st in the world to Germany's 10th, before Paraguay won 4-3 on penalties. It's the first time in World Cup history Germany have lost a shootout.
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2Kai Havertz equalised early in the second half after Paraguay had led at the break through Julio Enciso — for a while it looked like normal service. Then Havertz, Jonathan Tah and Nick Woltemade all missed in the shootout, and Paraguay's goalkeeper made the saves that mattered.
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3There was also a Jonathan Tah goal ruled out by VAR in extra time, which will get replayed in Germany for a while as the moment that might have changed everything — though Paraguay deserved plenty of credit regardless of that call.
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4Group stage-wise, Germany had looked fine: a 7-1 win over Curaçao and a 2-1 win over Ivory Coast, before a loss to Ecuador in their final game — with qualification already sewn up — turned out to foreshadow the bigger upset to come.
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5Four-time champions going out in the Round of 32 to the 41st-ranked team in the world is the kind of result German football will be picking over for years. For everyone else, it's a reminder that World Cups are unusually good at humbling the favourites — no team, however decorated, gets to skip that lesson forever.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Germany lost their first ever World Cup penalty shootout — to Paraguay, ranked 41st in the world, in the Round of 32. Four-time champions. Genuinely one of the biggest shocks in the tournament's history.
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Avoid saying
"Germany always find a way in the end" — not this time. They lost on penalties to a team ranked 31 places below them, and it wasn't some fluke smash-and-grab — Paraguay were the better side on the day. Read the room.
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1Paraguay's run ended in the round of 16, beaten 1-0 by France on July 4 — a single Kylian Mbappé penalty in the 70th minute the only difference between them and the semifinals. A tight, proud way to go out against the team that reached the final.
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2The story of their tournament was the round of 32: Paraguay eliminated four-time champions Germany on penalties, 4-3, after a 1-1 draw — widely rated the biggest shock of the whole tournament. Julio Enciso scored the opener that started it all.
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3Goalkeeper Orlando Gill was the actual match-winner in that shootout, saving spot-kicks from Kai Havertz and Nick Woltemade before Germany's Jonathan Tah blazed his over the bar. Not a bad way for a goalkeeper to become a household name overnight.
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4Getting there wasn't straightforward, either — Paraguay finished third in their group after a 4-1 loss to the USA, a 1-0 win over Turkey and a goalless draw with Australia, and still made it through as one of the best third-place finishers.
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5It's not quite as deep as their famous 2010 quarterfinal run, but knocking out one of the tournament favourites on the way is the kind of story Paraguayan football will be telling for years regardless of exactly which round it happened in.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Paraguay knocked four-time champions Germany out of this World Cup on penalties — their goalkeeper saved two spot-kicks to do it — and that's before you even get to how close they came to knocking out France as well.
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Avoid saying
Don't say 'at least they beat Germany' like that's the whole story — they then went toe-to-toe with the eventual finalists and lost by a single penalty. Underselling the France game undersells the whole run.