Paraguay 'expelled' its German counterpart from the World Cup
Paraguay pulled off a resounding surprise of a heavy caliber in the 2026 World Cup, after knocking out Germany from the round of 32, officially qualifying for the round of 16 and ousting one of the top contenders to win the World Cup title.
The match witnessed great excitement throughout the ninety minutes and extra periods, as the original and extra time ended in a positive draw with a goal for each team, and the two teams went to the penalty shootout, which in the end smiled for the Paraguayan team by a score of 4 goals to 3.
Germany bid farewell to the World Cup early for the third consecutive edition, in the worst era of the "Mannschaft" in its history, as it bid farewell to the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from the group stage, before the disappointment of 2026 by exiting the round of 32.
This is the first knockout match in the Mannschaft World Cup finals since the 2014 World Cup final, after the World Cup was eliminated in its last two editions of the first round, and despite losing the first half of the match, the Mannschaft set a new record of 253 correct passes in the first half, a record since the statistic began to be applied in 1966.
Germany loses with its weapon
Germany had never lost on penalties before at a World Cup, having beaten France in the semi-finals of the 1982 World Cup in Spain, Mexico in the 1986 World Cup, England in the 1990 World Cup and finally Argentina in the 2006 World Cup.
Prior to the Paraguay game, Germany had only conceded one penalty (the first penalty in World Cup history by Ole Stilke) to score 16 consecutive penalties, but against Paraguay they missed three through Kai Havertz, Nick Voltmeda and finally Jonathan Tah.
Germany wasted three penalties through Kai Havertz, Nick Voltemade and Jonathan Tah, while Joshua Kimmich, Jamal Musiala and Nadim Amiri scored an unusual amount of penalties after Germany had never conceded so many penalties in any of the previous four encounters.
Mauricio, Gustavo Gomez, Matias Galarza and Jose Canal scored for Paraguay, while Antonio Sanabria and Fabian Balbuena wasted before Canal sealed the tiebreaker, giving his country one of its most notable victories in World Cup history.
Germany sets World Cup record
Germany became the most extra-time team in the history of the finals (12 matches) after breaking up its partnership with Italy, and Germany won extra time 3 times against 3 defeats (against England in 1966 and against Italy in 1970 and 2006) and drew with Switzerland in 1938 (to play a replay) against four times in which they won on penalties and lost their first to Paraguay.
Neuer makes history
Manuel Neuer made history by becoming the most German player to start for the Bundesliga in a World Cup finals with 23 appearances, breaking his partnership with both Lothar Matthäus and Miroslav Klose.
Neuer made his 128th international appearance to cement his fifth place on the list of the most capped players for the German national team, behind Mateus (150), Klose (137), Thomas Müller (131) and Lukas Podolski (130).
Neuer, 40, has failed to keep a clean sheet in 10 consecutive World Cup matches to equal the record set by Mexican goalkeeper Antonio Carvajal, and the last time Germany kept a clean sheet was in the 2014 World Cup final when they beat Argentina with a goal without reply.