Germany lost on World Cup penalties for the first time in their history as Paraguay delivered a shock shootout win.
Germany, ranked 12th in the world, had dominated much of the first half against Paraguay, ranked 33rd without creating many chances but fell behind when awful defending left Julio Enciso unmarked on the penalty spot to head in. That made it a record ten World Cup games in a row they have conceded a goal for Germany.
Paraguay left Julian Nagelsmann’s side waiting out on the pitch for a few minutes before emerging in the second half at Gillette Stadium where temperatures had hit 84F 29C. Nine minutes after the match did restart, Germany levelled through a Kai Havertz header.
Since winning the World Cup final in 2014, Germany had not won a knockout game and this was the first match of this tournament to go to extra time.
Germany thought they had taken the lead in the first-half of extra time only for Jonathan Tah’s header to be controversially ruled out by referee Jalal Jayed after a VAR review as Paraguay, who were beaten 4-1 by the USMNT in the group stage, took the game to penalties.
Germany had scored each of their past 15 penalties at a World Cup but Orlando Gill saved Havertz’s first and Mauricio scored for Paraguay to put them ahead.
Gill pounded his gloves together before Joshua Kimmich rolled in for 1-1, but Gustavo Gomez made it 2-1.
Jamal Musiala put his penalty past a dancing Gill before Matías Galarza rolled in for 3-2 and then Gill saved from Nick Woltemade.
Antonio Sanabria could have won it but shot wide, then Nadiem Amiri made it 3-3 and Manuel Neuer saved from Fabian Balbuena in an extraordinary twist.
Tah, whose header had been disallowed remember, then blazed over the bar for Germany and Jose Canale blasted in the winner.
It is the fourth-biggest knockout shock by rankings since they began in 1992.
Here The Athletic‘s Sebastian Stafford-Bloor, Jordan Campbell, Matt Slater and refereeing expert Graham Scott break down the key talking points.
How did Germany fail on penalties?
You know how the saying goes: “Football is a simple game — you play for 120 minutes and then the Germans win on penalties.”
Not anymore they don’t.
Germany lost their first World Cup shoot-out after Kai Havertz, Nick Woltemade and Jonathan Tah all missed.
Paraguay blew two chances to win it when Antonio Sanabri put his shot wide and Manuel Neuer saved from Fabian Balbuena but Tah blasted his kick miles over the bar.
Centre-back Jose Canale, outstanding alongside his captain Gustavo Gomez, made it third time lucky. He sent Neuer the wrong way and Paraguay into dreamland.
Having won their previous four penalty shootouts, this was a crushing way for Germany to go out.
This is their football heritage, and it felt it may be going that way when they came back from the brink. In the end, they lost at their own game.
Jordan Campbell
What went wrong this summer?
A catastrophe for Germany. They may have technically got out of the group stage this time, but this is every bit the failure that they suffered in 2018 and 2022. The ramifications will be as severe, so will the treatment at the hands of the press and the ex-players from the past, who are afforded such loud voices on television.
Sure, there will be complaints about the VAR intervention and those will have merit, but Germany did not play well enough to advance and left themselves at the mercy of a penalty shootout. What an indignity for them, too, that they should lose that way, after so many nerveless successes.
The analysis will be brutal. Why the insistence on Leroy Sane starting despite a lack of production? Should Joshua Kimmich have played in midfield? Was the double-six pivot of Aleksandar Pavlovic and Felix Nmecha, which never convinced, worth persisting with when the team seemed overly technical and in need of greater physical force?
The introspection from this chastening experience will go on for a long, long time and rightly so, because this was not nearly good enough.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
Why was Tah’s header disallowed?
The harshest of VAR interventions denied Germany a potentially winning goal against Paraguay, led to both coaches receiving yellow cards and left this observer perplexed.
Goalkeeper Orlando Gill was briefly impeded by Waldemar Anton but contact in such circumstances is commonplace. In real time, the referee saw nothing wrong and all the players were lined up for the restart when the VAR decided to recommend a review.
Players are entitled to their space on the field and getting in an opponent’s way is not an offence in itself. In this context, there would have to be clear evidence that the block had a meaningful impact on the keeper’s ability to play or challenge for the ball.
Sure, you can build a thin case that Anton was guilty, and VARs would not intervene if a free kick were awarded on field.
But video review was introduced to correct obvious errors, not re-referee marginal calls, and the goal should have been allowed to stand.
Refereeing expert Graham Scott
Didn’t Germany used to be good at World Cups?
When Germany beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time to win the 2014 World Cup, it capped a remarkable four-tournament run since 2002 that had seen them finish second, third, third and then first.
That victory, which came five days after they battered Brazil 7-1 in Belo Horizonte, put a fourth World Cup-winners star on their jerseys.
And while football is not the Olympics and bronze medals are consolations few players get overly excited about, it was also the 12th time in 20 World Cup campaigns they had finished on the podium. That is three times more than any other nation has managed.
The point I am making is that on that July evening in Rio de Janeiro, Germany had a great claim to being the best in the world when it came to World Cups.
Since then? Not so much.
They did not get out of the group in Russia, sandwiching an unconvincing 2-1 win over Sweden with dismal defeats to Mexico and South Korea.
They then failed to get out of the group in Qatar, too, losing their first game to Japan, drawing their second with Spain and not beating Costa Rica by enough to advance on goal difference.
It has not been much better in the Euros, either, another competition they used to dominate but now find frustrating.
This dramatic drop-off in tournament results can be seen in their FIFA ranking, too. Between January 2007 and July 2018, they were never lower than sixth, and spent a good chunk of that period in the top three slots. Since then, they have been no better than ninth.
They are what they are. And now they are out.
Matt Slater
How did Almiron and Enciso make history?
It was a goal that sent the Paraguay bench into raptures. It nearly sent the fans behind the dugout spilling onto the pitch.
The country’s first ever goal in the knockout stage of a World Cup, created and dispatched by two players who very nearly were not able to take to the pitch.
Miguel Almiron produced the beautiful reverse pass to open up the space and Julio Enciso headed home the cross.
Enciso heads in completely unmarked (Photo by Jewel SAMAD / AFP via Getty Images)
In first-half stoppage time against Turkey, Almiron became the first player to be shown a red card for breaching FIFA’s new rule outlawing the use of the hand or shirt to cover the mouth during a heated exchange. It was deemed to be unsporting behaviour rather than a severe offence like offensive language so his penalty was a one-match that he was able to serve in the final group game against Australia.
Had Paraguay lost, however, it would have been too late for him to have a second bite at this World Cup. Alas, here he was in the 42nd minute against Germany, pretending to cross the ball from the second phase of a corner, only to then chop a pass down the line that found Matias Galarza.
Enciso, the man who steamed into the box and headed past Manuel Neuer, almost nearly missed the squad entirely.
The golden boy of Paraguay ever since he started making a name for himself as a teenager, the sight of the 22-year-old being carted off with his hands over his face in the final warm-up friendly against Nicaragua was anxiety-inducing. But fears of a tournament-ending hamstring injury proved misplaced and he was able to recover in time.
On June 5, Enciso looked like he might miss the World Cup (Photo: Christian Alvarenga/Getty Images)
He was a livewire for Paraguay who, twice in the opening few minutes, burst down the left flank to take his team up the pitch. He almost scored a second goal when he chased down a short back pass by Joshua Kimmich but Neuer was able to save.
Enciso scored 12 times for Strasbourg in Ligue 1 last season and he showed his potential again.
Did Nagelsmann get his selections wrong?
Pre-game Julian Nagelsmann made his boldest team selections of the tournament. Jamal Musiala was replaced by Deniz Undav, Germany went to something like a 4-4-2 and searched for more chance creation.
It did not work.
Before kick-off, Nagelsmann explained that he also wanted more protection when possession was turned over and, to be fair to him, his team were more stable. But only to a point. As has been the case across these four games, the Germans’ defending was littered with individual errors and Paraguay’s goal, while well-worked and well-taken, was embarrassingly simple in construction.
The decision to start Undav did not work (Photo: Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
It left Nagelsmann needing a further change and Leon Goretzka ultimately helped him avoid catastrophe. It was Florian Wirz and Kai Havertz who combined for the equaliser — what an excellent header that was from the Arsenal forward — but Goretzka, who replaced Felix Nmecha, added more force to a midfield that had looked ponderous and over-technical. A box-to-box player who enjoys the physical parts of the game was a natural antidote.
By the second half, Nagelsmann had effectively reverted to his pre-tournament team. Musiala replaced Undav — who did not take his chance — with Havertz returning to the pivot role in attack, before being joined by Nick Woltemade shortly before full time.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
