Paraguay stun Germany in World Cup shootout upset

Paraguay ended Germany’s World Cup with a 4-3 penalty shootout win in Foxborough, Massachusetts, after a 1-1 draw and extra time, sending Paraguay into the round of 16 and leaving Germany with its first ever defeat in a World Cup shootout. Jose Canale settled the tie with the first sudden-death penalty, and Orlando Gill made two key saves in the shootout as Paraguay completed the biggest upset of the 2026 tournament so far.

The result cut deeper than one bad night for a team that arrived as a four-time world champion and still left without a place in the last 16. Germany had won the 2014 World Cup, then crashed out in the group stage in 2018 and 2022, and this loss extended that pattern of underachievement under the glare of a tournament staged in the United States, where established powers have faced sharper scrutiny and no match has felt safe.

Julio Enciso gave Paraguay its opening goal, while Germany spent much of the knockout match chasing control and then chasing survival. Jonathan Tah had a goal controversially ruled out in extra time in some accounts, and later missed a decisive penalty in the shootout. Kai Havertz and Nick Woltemade were also among Germany’s reported missers, compounding the sense that the decisive moments again slipped away when the match demanded precision.

The defeat now intensifies pressure on Julian Nagelsmann, who took over in 2023 and, at 38, became the youngest coach in a World Cup knockout match in 40 years. Nagelsmann said after the match that he wants to remain in charge and is not someone who runs away, but Germany’s early exit has sharpened the scrutiny around a national side that has not translated pedigree into knockout-stage results since lifting the trophy in 2014.