José Canale’s calmly dispatched penalty settled a nerve-shredding shootout in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and sent Paraguay into the World Cup’s round of 16 at the expense of Germany. The 4-3 victory on spot-kicks, after 120 minutes of football ended 1-1, delivered the first penalty shootout defeat in German World Cup history and confirmed the elimination of Julian Nagelsmann’s side at the first knockout hurdle for a third consecutive tournament.

Paraguay had taken a first-half lead against the run of play when Julio Enciso rose unmarked to head home Matías Galarza’s cross in the 42nd minute, punishing a German team that had monopolised possession but failed to register a shot on target before the interval. Kai Havertz levelled nine minutes after the restart, glancing Florian Wirtz’s delivery beyond Orlando Gill, and Germany continued to dominate the ball, finishing with over 75 per cent possession and 21 attempts on goal. Yet the decisive second goal never arrived. Jonathan Tah thought he had won it in the 102nd minute, powering a header into the net from a corner, only for Moroccan referee Jalal Jayed to disallow the effort after a VAR review judged that Waldemar Anton had obstructed goalkeeper Gill. The decision, described as “very, very soft” by former England captain Alan Shearer on British television, preserved the deadlock and forced penalties.

Gill, a 26-year-old who plays his club football for San Lorenzo in Argentina, then seized the stage. He dived to his right to keep out Havertz’s opening kick and later denied Nick Woltemade, while Germany’s Tah blazed over the crossbar in sudden death. Paraguay squandered two chances of their own to seal the win — Antonio Sanabria fired wide and Fabián Balbuena saw his effort saved by Manuel Neuer — before Canale stepped up to convert the decisive penalty. The result was celebrated as a national holiday in Asunción, where President Santiago Peña declared a day off, and was hailed across South America as the latest blow to a German side that had already lost to Ecuador in the group stage.

For Germany, the exit extends a miserable run that began after their 2014 triumph in Brazil. Eliminated in the group stage in 2018 and 2022, they have now failed to reach the last 16 in three successive World Cups, a sequence that leaves Nagelsmann’s future in doubt despite his contract running until 2028. Brazil, the only five-time world champion, will retain that exclusive status for at least another cycle. Paraguay, competing in their first World Cup since 2010, will next face the winner of Tuesday’s tie between France and Sweden in Philadelphia on 4 July, with a place in the quarter-finals at stake.