Germany's World Cup Collapse: Wirtz Under Fire After Paraguay Defeat

Germany’s World Cup collapse in Boston will live long in the country’s footballing nightmares. Not just because Paraguay, ranked 41st in the world, sent them home on penalties. But because of what followed: a forensic dismantling of their supposed stars, with Florian Wirtz at the centre of the storm.

Wirtz in the firing line

On paper, this was meant to be Wirtz’s stage. A £116million Liverpool signing, billed as the creative heartbeat of a new German generation, walking into a knockout tie against unfancied Paraguay. Instead, he walked out of it as the lightning rod for a furious inquest.

Speaking on Netflix show The Rest is Football, Alan Shearer did not spare him.

Wirtz did supply a fine assist, his whipped cross glanced in by Kai Havertz. Beyond that, though, Shearer saw a player who disappeared when the temperature rose.

"They've got the quality in names and on paper, but they just didn't deliver," the former England captain said, grouping Wirtz among a clutch of big reputations that failed to turn up. He pointed to a "terrible season at Liverpool" and argued that the same pattern had played out on the biggest international stage: expectation without execution.

Micah Richards pushed back, arguing that Wirtz’s price tag underlined his talent and calling him a "superstar" whose best form is still to come. Shearer cut across him with a blunt question: "What's he done this season?"

That exchange captured the mood. Germany may have names. Right now, they don’t have performances to match.

A night that unravelled

The script was supposed to be simple. Germany, buoyed by a 7-1 demolition of Curacao and a tight win over Ivory Coast, would brush aside Paraguay and move through the expanded World Cup draw with minimal fuss.

Paraguay tore that script up.

Julio Enciso struck first, punishing slack German defending to give the South Americans a shock lead. Germany responded through Havertz, the Arsenal forward glancing in Wirtz’s teasing delivery to level the tie. It felt, briefly, like order had been restored.

Then came the chaos.

Jonathan Tah thought he had completed the rescue act, bundling in what he believed was a late winner. VAR intervened. Officials judged that goalkeeper Orlando Gill had been fouled in the build-up. The goal was wiped out, the momentum with it.

Extra-time came and went. Nerves took over. Penalties would decide Germany’s fate.

Penalty curse begins

Germany’s relationship with the shootout has long bordered on the mythical. Cold-blooded. Clinical. Inevitable. Not this time.

Havertz stepped up and saw his effort beaten away by Gill. Newcastle forward Nick Woltemade followed and also failed, Gill again the hero for Paraguay. Germany, staggered, clung on only because Antonio Sanabria and Fabian Balbuena squandered two chances to win it for the South Americans.

They were handed a third reprieve. Tah walked forward with the weight of German history on his shoulders and blazed over. Jose Canale did what Germany’s stars could not: he kept his nerve and buried his kick to seal a 4-3 shootout victory.

For the first time ever, Germany had lost a penalty shootout at a World Cup. Their first defeat from 12 yards in any international competition since 1976. A fortress reputation, gone in one night.

Names, medals… and no answers

The fallout has gone far beyond one missed kick or one misfiring creator.

Shearer’s criticism extended across the front line. Leroy Sane, he argued, has "not a great season" behind him. Denis Undav, drafted in to add punch around the box, failed to tilt the game. Wirtz, again, was singled out as emblematic of the gap between reputation and reality.

"So it's alright saying they've got the quality, but the quality wasn't there," Shearer said, dismissing the 7-1 rout of Curacao as an empty reference point. When it mattered, he insisted, Germany simply did not reach the required level.

Richards countered with the medals. Havertz, a scorer in Champions League finals in 2021 and 2026 and now a Premier League winner. Tah, freshly moved to Bayern Munich. Antonio Rudiger, a consistent force at Real Madrid. Young Nathaniel Brown, impressing in his early steps on the international stage. The talent, Richards argued, is undeniable, even if the output in Boston was nowhere near good enough.

His point was clear: this is not a squad devoid of class. It is a team failing to turn that class into control when tournaments turn hostile.

Nagelsmann stands firm as pressure mounts

In the middle of the storm stands Julian Nagelsmann, a 38-year-old coach now carrying the weight of three consecutive World Cup failures.

Germany’s exit to Paraguay in the round of 32 follows group-stage eliminations in their previous two finals. For a nation that once measured itself only by semi-finals and trophies, the slide is brutal.

Nagelsmann, though, refused to bow.

"When you exit the World Cup after you play Paraguay it is very bitter. It is very hurtful," he admitted. "This is the third elimination in a row, so we are not part of the first-class teams any more."

He knows the mood back home. "If we're going to do a survey today in Germany, people are not going to speak about me positively obviously," he said, before insisting he would not "run away" from the job. If the DFB want him to stay, he will stay.

He reserved special praise for the travelling support, lauding German fans for their backing in Boston even after the shootout heartbreak. It was a rare warm note on a bleak night.

Former internationals call time

Not everyone sees a future with Nagelsmann at the helm.

Thomas Hitzlsperger, working for BBC One, described the situation as "unacceptable" and questioned how Germany had arrived at the tournament weighed down by so many unresolved problems. "It doesn't look good for Nagelsmann," he said, arguing that the coach had not handled key situations well in recent months. In an expanded World Cup, he added, an exit this early is "tough to take for any big nation."

Arne Friedrich, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, went further. Looking at the entire campaign, he called the defeat "a deserved loss" and said Nagelsmann "has to face the consequences". For him, there was no ambiguity: "I would definitely say the journey continues without Nagelsmann."

A giant at a crossroads

Germany arrived in Boston with a 7-1 win behind them and a sense that the worst of their recent tournament trauma might finally be easing. They leave with another scar, a shattered penalty aura, and a £116million playmaker being held up as a symbol of unfulfilled promise.

The names are big. The clubs are elite. The medals glint.

But after Curacao, Ivory Coast, Ecuador and now Paraguay, one question hangs over this generation and the man leading it: how many more early flights home will it take before Germany stop talking about quality and start proving they still belong among football’s first class?