Germany are OUT of the World Cup! Kai Havertz and Nick Woltemade miss crucial penalties as Paraguay produce shock of the tournament to reach last-16
For those who want to see Jurgen Klopp back on a touchline in the near future, then Germany may have performed at least one good deed at this World Cup. To all other ends, they failed dismally.
By the time their demise was sealed by Paraguay, via Jose Canale’s strike at the end of a wild penalty shootout, the only mystery was how long Julian Nagelsmann might survive in his post. Would it be hours or days? And will it be Klopp next?
He has never hidden his interest and they have never had greater need. Because this was diabolical. This was bleak. This was a powerhouse nation up against a minnow and the minnow beating them at their own game – penalties.
So let’s spend a moment on how Germany came to lose a shootout for the first time ever at a World Cup.
The preceding 120 minutes had yielded a turgid 1-1, but the finale was bonkers. Orlando Gill’s saves from Kai Havertz and Nick Woltemade had seemingly made it a procession, but then Antonio Sanabria and Fabián Balbuena botched what we might, in Wimbledon fortnight, term match point.
When Jonathan Tah then blazed over, Canele had another chance for Paraguay to seal it. And this time, they did, launching into the roof of the net and sparking the maddest celebrations of the tournament so far. Fabulous.
And with it, they and not Germany will progress to the last 16, facing the winner of France and Sweden.
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Kai Havertz (left) and Nick Woltemade (right) both missed decisive penalties as Germany lost
Arsenal star Havertz stepped up first in Boston in the shootout but has his penalty saved
Gustavo Gomez celebrates after Jose Canale booked Paraguay’s place in the last-16
TALE OF THE UNDERDOG
These tournaments rise and fall on the contributions of their underdogs and few have seemed as toothless as Gustavo Alfaro’s bunch, who sit outside FIFA’s top 30 and opened their campaign by getting smashed by the United States.
From that faceplant out of the blocks, they escaped group D in one of those lucky loser spots, but were expected to get swatted here.
That they had the trickery of Miguel Almiron and the pace of Enciso was meant to be only a fig leaf of balance against the four-time champions. How wrong we were.
THE INQUEST
Naturally, the inquest into Germany’s failing will be savage. Nagelsmann had been underfire for the group stage loss against Ecuador and attempted to brush it off. To go by his words before the match: ‘If you win, everything is perfect, and if you lose, everything is s***.’
That was his critique of snap, nuance-deprived judgements, but there was no subtlety to this loss. No mitigation. Germany were terrible. They had all of the ball and no clue. They were a side that couldn’t attack and demonstrated incompetence when required to defend, and ultimately fell to a team that spent 75 per cent of the game on the chase.
The list of those chiming in to pile in one Nagelsmann’s misery will not be short, which itself has been one of the hindrances of his reign even before this defeat.
Pressure exists on all the so-called giants, of course, but not every manager has to contend with so many lauded voices among the punditry class. When Klopp isn’t chipping in, key elements from the World Cup-winning class of 2014 have filled the void – both Toni Kroos and Philipp Lahm have had their say.
For Nagelsmann, that is no easy atmosphere in which to work and one made harder still by an awkward truth – the criticisms have often been spot on. If we are to credit the manager for anything, it is that he hasn’t not been entirely blind to the shortcomings, as shown by his decision here to drop Jamal Musiala for Stuttgart forward Deniz Undav.
As a blood sacrifice, that carried serious weight – Musiala was the pulse of Germany’s attacking line at Euro 2024 – but the change achieved nothing against Paraguay. Undav was subbed off after 63 minutes, having demonstrated precious little.
Julian Nagelsmann will be under huge pressure to keep his job amid support for Jurgen Klopp
This was a dreadful display from Germany given how much of the possession they had here
Other changes had been requested pre-match by Nagelsmann’s critics but those were not heeded. Instead, Manuel Neuer retained his spot in the face of recent criticisms, as did Florian Wirtz, and Nagelsmann persisted with Joshua Kimmich at right back, despite Bayern Munich and every other member of the German population seeing him as a midfielder.
There is a fine line between courage and stubbornness, alas, and this was a tough watch for Nagelsmann’s backers.
CREATIVE DEFICIT AND LAZY RUNNERS
The first half was a prime example of Germany’s problems – they had the better part of 80 per cent of the possession and lacked the wit to use it.
That meant no meaningful shots, no clever patterns and no idea how to change gears when it became apparent that Paraguay were content to sit deep and punch on the counter. Wirtz, on the left of what was effectively a 4-4-2, was a passenger, as he has been for much of the tournament, and Undav was isolated. His tally of seven touches in the opening 45 minutes was an indictment of both Wirtz and Leroy Sane on the opposite flank.
The greater concern at this point in the match was the work rate and desire. Kimmich had flagged that as an issue after the Ecuador defeat and similar thoughts were provoked here by Paraguay’s strike for 1-0.
In the initial phase of the attack, that was shown when Juan Jose Caceres fought hardest to win the loose ball, and it was cemented by the ease with which Enciso met Matias Galarza’s cross. Antonio Rudiger and Jonathan Tah both had eyes on Enciso as he entered the area and did nothing. Dire. To Neuer’s detractors, we should add there was nothing he could do about it.
LITTLE DEVILS AND BIG QUESTIONS
Nagelsmann’s reaction to the goal was to introduce Leon Goretzka at the break, but the sharper impact came in the urgency of Germany’s play. Paraguay continued to sit back, which helped, but the Germans, tellingly, were looking to the wings. Suddenly, Wirtz and Leroy Sane had options to get involved.
It was from a Wirtz inswinger that they pulled level, with Kai Havertz powering the header. A superb goal and an immense relief. Also a question: why did it take so long to find a solution?
Chasing the win, Nagelsmann hooked Undav for Musiala, but the latter made only a small dent on the game. His form here has truly been a puzzle.
The same was said ahead of kick-off about Wirtz, but at least he turned up in the second half and finally gave an outing to the little devil that lives inside him.
Liverpool fans might have seen too little evidence of the fact, but at his best, in slower games, he can be a menace. As the second half, we saw more of that, including a second brilliant cross for Havertz, this time wasted by the header.
Paraguay were disciplined, rode their luck at times, but are exactly what the World Cup needs
But there was no breakthrough within the 90 minutes. No light in the gloom. That meant extra time, where Woltemade appealed for a penalty unsuccessfully after an apparent handball by Gustavo Gomez, before Tah headed in at the back post following a Nathaniel Brown corner.
The VAR’s view, that Waldemar Anton had fouled the goalkeeper, was upheld and so penalties soon became an inevitability.
THE KLOPP FACTOR
All of the above played out in front of Klopp, who has hovered over this doomed campaign like a hero in absentia. The calls for him to come in and right this German ship will be deafening.
