Germany
ParaguayPenalties 3–4
The match was a structural argument between Germany's possession and Paraguay's compactness, and Paraguay won it on the margins — a counter-attacking header at forty-two minutes, a goalkeeper who refused to be beaten, and a VAR decision at one hundred and two minutes that disallowed Tah's header for minimal contact between Anton and Gill that the replays made look softer than the referee's call suggested. From one-one at ninety minutes through one-one at one hundred and twenty, Paraguay never deviated from their plan; in the shootout, Gill saved twice, Tah skied the decisive kick, and José Canale converted the penalty that eliminated Germany for the first time on penalties in World Cup history.
Germany
Germany carried seventy-five percent possession into Gillette Stadium and never found a way to make it hurt Paraguay in the way the statistics implied they should. Florian Wirtz provided the delivery for Havertz's fifty-fourth-minute equaliser after Enciso had put Paraguay ahead with a counter-attacking header twelve minutes earlier, but beyond those two moments the German attack found every avenue blocked by Cubas, Gómez, and a defensive structure that refused to give ground. The disallowed Tah header in extra time — VAR ruling minimal contact from Anton on goalkeeper Gill — was the moment Germany lost the match they were supposed to be winning, and in the penalty shootout Havertz and Woltemade both failed to beat Gill, Tah skied the decisive kick, and the tournament's most technically polished side went home in the round of thirty-two.
Paraguay
Paraguay were exactly what they said they would be: compact, organised, dangerous on the break, and carrying a goalkeeper who would decide the match. Enciso's forty-second-minute header from Almirón's cross was a perfect expression of their fournament philosophy — absorb, wait, convert — and Orlando Gill spent the rest of the afternoon justifying Paraguay's belief that defensive organisation plus one moment of quality is enough to beat anybody in a tournament bracket. Five or six saves in regular time, two more in the penalty shootout against Havertz and Woltemade, and the composure of a goalkeeper who had been waiting for this afternoon his entire career. Paraguay eliminated Germany on penalties and one of the knockout stage's great upsets was complete.