FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Paraguay pulled off the first knockout-round upset of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, stunning Germany on penalty kicks Monday in the round of 32.

Defender José Canale fired a shot past veteran German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in the sixth round of PKs to clinch the victory for the underdog South Americans before an announced crowd of 63,945 at Boston Stadium.

Paraguay won 4-3 on penalties after 120 minutes of regulation and extra time ended with the teams tied at 1-1.

Orlando Gill saved penalty shots by Kai Havertz and Nick Woltemade, and Jonathan Tah sent his over the net to set up Canale’s clincher, which came after consecutive unsuccessful attempts by Antonio Sanabria and Fabián Balbuena.

Nearly an hour earlier, Tah scored what appeared to be a go-ahead goal off a German corner kick 12 minutes into extra time, but it was disallowed after a video review. Referee Jalal Jayed determined Germany defender Waldemar Anton had illegally impeded Gill, enraging the Germany sideline and maintaining the 1-1 deadlock.

Paraguay, which began its World Cup campaign with a humbling 4-1 loss to the United States and narrowly made it out of the group stage as the seventh of eight third-place qualifiers, now advances to the round of 16. It will face either tournament favorite France or Sweden on July 4 in Philadelphia.

The stunning result meant more World Cup heartbreak for the once-vaunted Germans, who have now gone three consecutive tournaments without a knockout-round win since hoisting the trophy in 2014.

Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann made one notable change to his starting lineup for Monday, promoting productive substitute Deniz Undav and benching midfielder Jamal Musiala.

Undav was the team’s leading scorer in group play with three goals and two assists, including both tallies in Germany’s dramatic 2-1 win over Ivory Coast. Musiala, meanwhile, had been relatively quiet in his second World Cup; the 23-year-old Bayern Munich star’s lone group-stage goal came during his side’s 7-1 pasting of overmatched Curaçao.

Missing from Germany’s defense was Nico Schlotterbeck, whose ankle injury against Ivory Coast knocked him out for the rest of the tournament.

Paraguay got Miguel Almirón back from a red-card suspension but was missing one of its top players, Diego Gomez, who was suspended after picking up his second yellow card in the group-stage finale.

Gustavo Alfaro’s defense-focused Paraguayan side, which was coming off consecutive clean sheets against Türkiye and Australia, seemed content to let Germany dominate possession, and the favorites did just that, controlling the ball for nearly 80% of the first half and spending most of it in the opposition half. That control produced few true scoring chances, however, as the German attackers struggled to penetrate Paraguay’s compact 4-4-2 formation.

Undav and Florian Wirtz threatened in the opening 10 minutes with shots that sailed above the net, but most of Germany’s stretches of possession ended in turnovers, fouls and frustration. Despite the massive possession disparity, Germany was whistled for nine first-half fouls to Paraguay’s two.

Then, in the 41st minute, Almirón seized on an opportunity to flip the match. He won a corner on a break down the right wing, and though veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer punched that away, Damián Bobadilla slid to cut off Germany’s clear. The ball made its way back to Almirón, then to Matías Galarza, who lofted a cross that Julio Enciso headed into the open net.

It was just the third goal of this World Cup for Paraguay, which fielded one of the tournament’s least explosive offenses during the group stage. Its 1.25 expected goals (xG) across its first three games ranked second-to-last among all 48 participants, ahead of only winless, eliminated Tunisia.

At the time of Enciso’s tally, Germany owned a 79% possession rate and had completed 265 passes to Paraguay’s 47. But the latter carried a 1-0 lead into halftime after Felix Nmecha and Joshua Kimmich came up empty on chances in stoppage time.

Enciso had an opportunity to make it 2-0 early in the second half, but he couldn’t flick his up-close shot over Neuer. Less than five minutes later, Germany found its equalizer, with Wirtz zipping in a ball that grazed off Havertz’s head and bounced past Gill.

The game opened up from there. Paraguay substitute Gustavo Caballero connected on a header that was saved by Neuer and shook loose for a break that was waved off for offside. At the other end, Havertz drew two fouls that led to German free kicks, then headed another looping entry pass from Wirtz. That one was denied by Gill in the 78th minute to keep the score level at 1-1.

Musiala, who subbed on in the 64th minute, stole a pass to spark a Germany counterattack as the clock hit 90. The ensuing sequence produced a corner, but Tah’s header caromed straight to Gill for his third save. Paraguay also couldn’t convert on a corner in the waning moments, sending the match to extra time.

Germany generated several quality chances early in the added period. Canale denied one, and Gustavo Gómez sold out to stop another by Nick Woltemade from point-blank range, leaving the Paraguayan defender rolling on the grass in pain.

After Tah’s would-be goal was negated, and Gill snuffed out another doorstep bid by Havertz and Woltemade, the first half of the 30-minute bonus period ended with the teams still knotted.

Anton nearly atoned for his illegal goal-line pick as time wound down, but his 119th-minute header off yet another Germany corner traveled straight into Gill’s stomach. Paraguay successfully defended all 16 corner kicks it faced in the match, while attempting just six of its own.

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