VAR denies Tah extra-time winner as Paraguay stun Germany on penalties

Jonathan Tah thought he had put Germany into the lead in extra time at Gillette Stadium, only for VAR to erase the goal and swing the last-32 World Cup tie toward Paraguay. The 1-1 match was ultimately decided from the spot, where Paraguay won 4-3 to reach the round of 16 for the first time since 2010 and hand Germany a first-ever World Cup penalty shootout loss.

Tah’s header came in the 102nd minute after a corner, but Jalal Jayed was sent to the pitchside monitor and overturned the goal after VAR ruled that Waldemar Anton had fouled Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill in the buildup. Jayed then announced to the crowd that a foul had been committed, turning a potentially match-winning moment into a restart of the tension that had already built through extra time in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

The decision immediately set off debate because the contact was seen by many as marginal, the kind of subjective challenge that increasingly sits at the center of VAR’s authority. Instead of being treated as a decisive act of attacking play, Tah’s header became a reviewable sequence, and Anton’s challenge on Gill became the hinge on which the match turned. For Germany, that meant a lead vanished at the exact stage of the game when margins are smallest and every intervention carries outsized weight.

Julian Nagelsmann reacted in disbelief on the touchline as the call went against his side. Alan Shearer also publicly condemned the ruling, calling it “pathetic.” For Paraguay, the reprieve was enough to keep the score level and carry the match into penalties, where the underdog held its nerve and completed a major upset.

The result left Germany staring at one of its most painful exits in the modern World Cup era, with a disallowed extra-time goal and a shootout defeat combining to end the campaign. Paraguay, meanwhile, advanced with a victory defined as much by the review system as by the penalty takers who settled it.