Germany and Paraguay are set to meet Monday in a Round of 32 match in FOXBOROUGH after both teams survived Group E in different ways. Germany still finished first despite losing 2-1 to Ecuador after squandering a lead, while Paraguay recovered from an opening 4-1 loss to the Americans and kept going with a 1-0 win over Turkey and a 0-0 draw with Australia.
The timing matters because this is Germany’s first elimination game in 12 years, and the winner moves on to Philadelphia for a possible meeting with France. For a team that won the World Cup in 2014 but failed to get out of group play in two straight editions before this tournament, the next step arrived with no margin for error.
Kai Havertz, speaking at a press conference on Sunday, brushed off the criticism that has followed Germany into the knockout stage. He said, “Everyone has their own opinion,” added that he did not have a problem with it, and said, “We already have experts in our country and, when you start looking at other countries, I don’t really care what other people say.” The comments came after Gary Lineker described this as one of the weakest German national teams he had ever seen, a remark that hung over a side that opened the tournament with a 7-1 win over Curaçao and a 2-1 victory over Ivory Coast before the setback against Ecuador.
Julian Nagelsmann has tried to keep the focus on the match itself. He said Germany needed a perfect game, called it a do-or-die match, and said Paraguay was a strong, direct and physically awkward opponent. “It’s always about winning when you talk about Germany,” he said, adding, “We try to win every game.” The matchup also carries a broader edge because Nagelsmann only took over after Hansi Flick and made his national team debut in 2023, when Germany beat the Americans 3-1 in East Hartford, Conn., then drew 2-2 with Mexico at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia three days later.
Paraguay arrives with its own reason to believe it can keep stretching this run. Gustavo Alfaro said, “We are the team everybody wanted to be out, and we made it,” and called the test against Germany “a big, and nice, challenge.” He also said Argentina and Brazil were even bigger than Germany in the hierarchy of World Cup candidates, a reminder that his team has already been built around surviving pressure rather than chasing style points. Monday will decide whether that survival act continues, or whether Germany’s sharper start to the tournament finally carries into the rounds that matter most.
