Paraguay have knocked out four-time world champions, Germany out of the World Cup on Monday with a 4-3 penalty shootout win after the two sides were deadlocked 1-1 in their Round of 32 match.<\/p>\n
Paraguay\u2019s Jose Canale scored the decisive spot kick<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s Kai Havertz, Nick Woltemade and Jonathan Tah all failed in the shootout<\/p>\n
Julio Enciso opened the scoring for Paraguay when he headed in a cross by Matias Galarza in the 42nd minute<\/p>\n
Kai Havertz drew Germany level nine minutes into the second half with a glanced header from a Florian Wirtz cross<\/p>\n
Germany dominated the tempo with 75% possession and 21 shots, but Paraguay\u2019s resolute defense frustrated them through extra time.<\/p>\n
A stunning Julio Enciso header in the 42nd minute marked Paraguay\u2019s first-ever goal in a World Cup knockout stage match; the 22-year-old forward connected beautifully with a flat cross from Mat\u00edas Galarza to open the scoring in the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 32 clash.<\/p>\n
Julio Enciso\u2019s first-half header was canceled out by a Kai Havertz equalizer in the 54th minute, connecting with a header to tie the game at 1-1. Germany believed they had secured the winning goal, but a VAR review disallowed it after spotting a foul by Leroy San\u00e9 during the buildup.<\/p>\n
After 120 minutes of relentless German attacking and defiant Paraguayan defending, the fixture progressed to penalties. Havertz, who was pivotal during regulation time, sent a penalty attempt wide, opening the door for a resilient Paraguay squad. Keeping their nerve, Paraguay clinically converted their chances to claim a 3-2 shootout victory.<\/p>\n
Paraguay will face either France or Sweden in the Round of 16 in Philadelphia on July 4<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":38403,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-38401","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Paraguay\u2019s Jose Canale scored the decisive spot kick","published_date":"","news_description":"Paraguay\u2019s Jose Canale scored the decisive spot kick","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38402,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38401\/revisions\/38402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}