Germany’s penalty shootout at the FIFA World Cup suffers huge blow after shock loss to Paraguay

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For the first time in their history, Germany have come out on the losing end of a penalty shootout in the FIFA World Cup.

Paraguay managed to take the lead late in the first half thanks to a solid header from Julio Enciso. But the Germans didn’t wait too long to equalise, with Havertz getting on the end of a lovely cross from Florian Wirtz.

Despite both teams trying to push to grab a winner in the remaining time, they remained deadlocked until the penalty shootouts, where we saw one of the biggest upsets in recent World Cup history.

Germany’s FIFA World Cup penalty shootout record finally has a blemish

Paraguay defeating Germany in a penalty shootout was a truly historic accomplishment, not just because of how big of an upset it was.

Paraguay became the first team in history to defeat Germany in a penalty shootout at the FIFA World Cup, making their record 4-1 in shootouts.

In fact, this marks Germany’s first penalty shootout loss across any major tournament. What makes this loss even more painful is that it will be the last game Manuel Neuer, Germany’s legendary goalkeeper, plays for the national team.

Germany’s dire FIFA World Cup record since 2014 win

This tournament was set to be a redemptive outing for the German national team. Since they won the FIFA World Cup in 2014, Germany had failed to reach those same heights again.

In both 2014 and 2022, Germany were knocked out of the group stages, suffering multiple humiliating defeats in the process.

But with a new head coach in Julian Nagelsmann and a bright crop of young stars, there were high hopes for Germany. And these hopes only got higher after their 7-1 destruction of Curacao.

Now we find ourselves in the knockout stages, with Germany falling at the first hurdle to a team that, on paper, they should handily be defeating.