Germany's penalty aura shattered by resolute Paraguay

Germany exited the World Cup not with a whimper or even a cry of pain, just an extended wrestle into the dust at the hands of a thrillingly dogged Paraguay, followed by the most extraordinary of penalty shootouts.

- Barney Ronay

Not only did Germany lose their first shootout since the original Panenka one of 1976. They did so in a whirl of errors, shanked kicks and what amounted to a sporting meltdown in the gloaming. Paraguay will now progress to play a last-16 tie in Philadelphia, but not before celebrating this result as surely the greatest in their football history.

For Julian Nagelsmann, New England feels like the end of the road. This is not the Germany of the high-end academy boom years. But they are better than this. Jürgen Klopp has spent the current tournament cheerfully judging Nagelsmann from the TV studio, apologising for judging him, and generally trying to pretend he wouldn’t actively love to have a go in the job. That chance might just be around the corner. Be careful what you wish for, Jürgen.

This was a bright, lively game at the start, for at least the opening 70 seconds. By the six-minute mark the first Mexican wave was breaking out.

And by half-time Paraguay had produced what was in its own way a perfectly minimalist 45 minutes. No wonder Germany looked bewildered as they trudged off for the break. At that stage they had taken 79% possession and made 308 passes to Paraguay’s 55. They were also 1-0 down and panting for breath in a very firm but very deathly Paraguayan defensive chokehold.

This was Germany’s first World Cup knockout game since they won it in Brazil in 2014. There had been some pressure on Nagelsmann to shift Joshua Kimmich into midfield, so poor was the performance against Ecuador at the end of the group phase. But he stuck with the same central pivot here, Denis Undav as a scurrying No 10 the only change.