Underdogs Paraguay send German giants home

Gary Lineker once proclaimed, “Football is a simple game -- 22 men chase the ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.” That might have been the case before, but today at the Gillette Stadium in Boston, it was Paraguay that emerged victorious in the 2026 FIFA World Cup after shocking the four-time champions Germany on penalties in their Round of 32 match-up. In a tightly contested and emotional game, the Paraguayans withstood a barrage of German attacks to keep the score at 1-1 and take the match to penalties, where they won 4-3 to hand Die Mannschaft their first-ever loss by penalties in a World Cup.

It’s one of those upsets that nobody could have seen coming. Germany, who sit 10th in the FIFA rankings, were clear-cut favourites to beat Paraguay, who sit 41st. Thirty-one places separated the giants and the minnows. If that wasn’t enough, Paraguay’s performance in the tournament so far, losing 4-1 to the USA in their opener, scraping a 1-0 victory over Turkey, and a 0-0 draw with Australia, all pointed to a by-the-book early exit for La Albiroja.

The first 33 minutes of the game was par for course with those expectations. Although Paraguay were defending well, it seemed like the German offence was not even giving them a chance to breathe, peppering in attacks from all sides. A German goal looked almost inevitable and it seemed more of a question of which German player would open the scoring. The Paraguayans had other ideas. Nearing the end of the first half, in one of their rare forays into the German half, a cross from Matias Galarza found winger Julio Enciso completely unmarked near the penalty spot. Enciso made no mistakes and knocked the ball into the back of the net, giving Paraguay the lead with 3 minutes left in the first half. The shocked Germans were forced to go back into the tunnel and reckon with how their dominance in the half ended with a 1-0 lead for the opposition. 

But a single goal had never been enough to keep Die Mannschaft down, and 9 minutes after the second half whistle blew, Kai Havertz headed in the ball with an assist from Florian Wirtz to keep the game level. The glimmer of hope that Paraguayan fans had seemed to vanish in an instant as the Germans ramped up their offence. But the usually unstoppable German attack could not seem to break down the Paraguayan wall. Cross after cross into the box, attempting to use the height advantage provided by forwards Kai Havertz and Nick Woltemade, were met with blocks or interceptions by the Paraguayan backline. Over the course of 90 minutes and the 30 minutes of extra time, it became clear that it just wasn’t Germany’s day. Despite dominating possession 75% to Paraguay’s 25%, and taking three times the number of shots, Germany were unable to find the back of the net. They lacked a finishing edge to their attacks, and it’s an age-old adage in football that possession for possession’s sake is fruitless if you can’t score a goal. Paraguay were content to make the field smaller and sit back and wait for a counterattack, while German coach Julian Nagelsmann threw every player he had at them. 

Now, it can’t be a true World Cup upset if there isn’t a little bit of controversy, and there was plenty of that in extra time today. In the 102nd minute, a German corner resulted in Jonathan Tah heading home a goal that he, and everyone in the stadium, thought could be the dagger to finish Paraguay’s underdog story. The Germans were celebrating, the Paraguayans were putting their heads down in shame, and everybody thought this was the goal that would finally put Germany through. However, just as the two teams were getting ready to restart the game, the on-field referee indicated a possible VAR intervention on a foul in build-up. As he walked to check VAR, everyone, including the commentators were puzzled. The foul in question was Germany’s Waldemar Anton briefly interfering with Paraguayan goalkeeper Orlando Gill in the box during the corner. It was a weak foul, at best, and the on-field referee did not see anything at the time of the goal, but nevertheless it was given, and the Paraguayan hopes were restored. It does call to question the use of VAR over marginal calls like this that have such a large impact on the result of the game. VAR is supposed to be used to rectify glaring errors made by the onfield referee, not ones like this that are quite harsh and subjective to judge. While the match may spring a discourse over the use of the technology in such moments, and while the Germans may continue to bring this one up for the foreseeable future, the disallowed goal meant that extra-time would end with the scores still level and only one way to determine the winner: a penalty shootout. 

Prior to today, the Germans had an impeccable record when it came to penalty shootouts in the World Cup. Simply put, they’d been involved in four, and had won all four, missing only one out of their 18 attempts. That was until Kai Havertz made it two in 19 after missing the first penalty. Nick Woltemade made it three in 22 soon after, and Paraguay missed two chances to seal the deal early with Antonio Sanabri missing the net and Neuer saving Fabian Balbuena’s attempt to make it a sudden death. Jonathan Tah stepped up to take Germany’s sixth shot and unfortunately, the would-be goalscorer that might have secured Germany’s win sent the ball far over the post to leave the German’s fate in the hands of Jose Canale. The Paraguayan centre-back, who had played the entire 120 minutes, did not miss and slammed home the final nail in the coffin for Germany. 

It’s another disappointing tournament for the four-time champions, who now haven’t been able to win a knockout game since lifting the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. Julian Nagelsmann’s tenure at the team will surely be coming to an end and the Germans will continue to look for new options to return to their former glory. 

For Paraguay, this marks their second-ever knockout win in a World Cup and it’s one that they won’t forget anytime soon. The defensive excellence and tenacity that they showed today made them the deserved giant-slayers and the celebrations that started today in Boston will surely continue for a while down in Asuncion. They will face the winner of the game between France and Sweden in their round-of-16 match on July 4 in Philadelphia.