Paraguay pulls off biggest win in its country’s history with shocking upset of Germany in Foxborough
FOXBOROUGH — Germany seemed to have all the advantages over Paraguay on Monday — the higher-ranked team, more fans in the crowd, and domination on the stat sheet.
But the Germans didn’t have Paraguay’s goalie.
Orlando Gill made six saves in regulation and two more in penalty kicks, and Paraguay’s José Canale calmly buried his attempt under the crossbar in the sixth round of PKs as Paraguay pulled off the most stunning upset of the World Cup, 1-1 (4-3).
Germany already had weathered two chances for Paraguay to win with one final kick, but gave them a third when Jonathan Tah’s attempt sailed high over the crossbar. It all sent some Paraguay players into tears and others into a celebratory fury in the corner of the field.
The fans of “La Albirroja,” who didn’t stop dancing and singing throughout the two-hour match, remained in the stands long after the final PK, celebrating the biggest win in their country’s history. Paraguay president Santiago Peña promptly declared Tuesday a national holiday.
“For us this was not new, to face a match from an inferior position from adversity,” Paraguay manager Gustavo Alfaro said. “This is an epic night, an epic afternoon. Sometimes everything my team went through, all the suffering Paraguay has faced, if we resist, that’s part of our DNA.”
Gill thwarted corner kick after corner kick in the second half and extra time, then made two diving saves to his left in PKs to help secure the dramatic win. Paraguay, which finished third in Group D with a 1-1-1 record, will face the winner of Tuesday’s France-Sweden match on Saturday in Philadelphia.
“I don’t know where I got my strength,” said Gill, 26, a keeper for San Lorenzo de Almagro in the Argentine league. “We gave our best version, we put our heart, and we were able to keep the draw until the penalties, and thanks to that I could save as many needed to qualify.”
A steamy day in Foxborough produced the feistiest match of the six here so far (and the first one of knockout play), featuring four yellow cards and 30 fouls. It also came with controversy — Germany thought it netted the potential winning goal in the 102nd minute, only to have Tah’s header negated by a foul on Waldemar Anton via VAR for interfering with Gill.
“This foul was not a real foul,” German manager Julian Nagelsmann said. “It was actually a joke that this goal was disallowed.”
It’s a stunning victory for Paraguay, which began the day with the fourth-lowest odds of the 32 remaining teams to win the World Cup at 450-1. Paraguay secured its first goal in World Cup knockout play after five previous attempts; it won on penalties in the 2010 round of 16, but after a scoreless 120 minutes.
By all accounts, Paraguay had no business competing with Germany. It’s a country of 7 million people, compared with 83 million in Germany. The Germans had the dominant fan advantage in the seating bowl. Germany is ranked 10th in the FIFA world rankings, compared with 41st for Paraguay. And Germany dominated every aspect of the match, outshooting, outpassing, and outpossessing Paraguay by a three-to-one margin.
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Yet Paraguay’s fans outdanced and outsang the Germans despite sitting in just a handful of sections. And Gill and Paraguay’s defense held strong, limiting Germany to just one goal on 21 shot attempts.
It opened the scoring in the 42nd minute on a header from Julio Enciso. Germany notched the equalizer in the 54th on a header by Kai Havertz, but Paraguay withstood several furious German attacks over the final 65 minutes of play.
The result is even more surprising given Paraguay began the tournament with a dispiriting 4-1 loss to the United States. But Alfaro called that match a wake-up call, and Paraguay has allowed just one goal over its last three matches. Paraguay responded with a win over Turkey and a draw with Australia to advance to knockout play.
Paraguay also barely had any time to prepare for Germany. It finished group play at 9 p.m. Pacific time Thursday in San Francisco, and had three days to rest up and fly across the country.
For the Germans, the four-time World Cup winners, four-time runners-up, and three-time third-place finishers, Monday’s defeat was devastating. Die Mannschaft reached the knockout round for the first time since winning the tournament in 2014, and had hoped to avenge poor showings in 2018 and 2022 when it didn’t get out of group play. Germany has heard chirping from analysts and former players that this year’s squad is inferior to previous iterations.
Germany opened the tournament with a 7-1 win over Curacao, but signs of trouble emerged last week when it lost its Group E finale to Ecuador by allowing a goal in the second half. And the troubles came to a head Monday against Paraguay, whose defense was nearly impenetrable. Despite Germany’s 21-7 advantage in shots, Paraguay had more big chances, 3-2.
“We failed once again to spark that kind of enthusiasm — to field a team that people can truly identify with,” Germany captain Joshua Kimmich said. “We should have the ambition, and the quality, to beat opponents like Paraguay.”
While making the knockout round this tournament with an expanded field, this marks the third straight trip that Germany failed to reach the round of 16.
“If you are eliminated against Paraguay, we are apparently not a first-class football team anymore,” Nagelsmann said. “At the end of the day it’s just very disappointing for Germany.”
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