The World Cup 2026 Round of 32 clash between Germany and Paraguay witnessed a historic event that had never occurred before. The South American side pulled off a massive upset by eliminating Germany on penalties, marking a first-of-its-kind capitulation in Die Mannschaft’s history.
Prior to this match, Germany had been involved in four World Cup penalty shootouts—the last being against Argentina in the 2006 quarterfinals—and had won every single one of them. In fact, German players had only ever missed one penalty in World Cup shootout history, which was by Uli Stielike back in 1982.
Yet, after decades of absolute spot-kick dominance, Julian Nagelsmann’s generation completely threw that legendary resilience out the window.
Three German players missed their penalties today: Kai Havertz, Nick Woltemade, and Jonathan Tah. This unprecedented collapse resulted in the German machines losing a World Cup penalty shootout for the first time in history.
This also marks only the fourth time in history that Germany has failed to reach the World Cup quarterfinals, extending their curse of early Round of 32 exits to three consecutive tournaments.
