Paraguay stun Germany in World Cup shootout upset

Paraguay knocked Germany out of the World Cup 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw through extra time in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and turned one of the tournament’s biggest upsets into a place in the Round of 16. The result ended Germany’s first-ever loss in a World Cup penalty shootout and flipped the balance between a four-time champion and a side ranked 41st by FIFA.

Julio Enciso gave Paraguay the lead late in the first half, and Kai Havertz pulled Germany level in the 52nd minute. The decisive swing nearly came in extra time, when Jonathan Tah appeared to have scored in the 102nd minute, only for video review to rule the goal out after officials judged Waldemar Anton had pushed goalkeeper Orlando Gill to the ground before Tah struck the ball.

The shootout belonged to Paraguay’s nerve. José Canale, who had not started Paraguay’s previous two World Cup matches, made his first start of the tournament and scored the first sudden-death penalty. Gill then made two key saves to keep Germany from recovering, and Paraguay finished the job despite entering the match without defender Omar Alderete, who was injured in the previous game against Australia.

The result carried unusual weight because the teams’ only previous World Cup meeting had ended in Germany’s 1-0 win in the 2002 round of 16. Two decades later, Paraguay reversed that script and did it against a German side that had won six of seven penalty shootouts in major tournaments, including six straight since the 1976 European Championship final.

For Paraguay, the win was more than survival in a knockout tie. It sent the team into the Round of 16, where it will face the winner of France vs. Sweden in Philadelphia on July 4, 2026. For Germany, it left a first-round bracket loss that will resonate because it did not come from chaos alone, but from a ranked outsider matching one of football’s most established powers across 120 minutes and then holding firm when the margin shrank to penalties.