Germany vs Paraguay arrives in Foxborough on Monday with a knockout-round consequence attached: one side moves on from the Round of 32, and one side goes out. Germany got there by winning Group E, while Paraguay reached the same stage after recovering from an opening loss.
Kai Havertz addressed the noise on Sunday and kept the message blunt. “Everyone has their own opinion,” he said. “I don’t have [a] problem with it.” He added, “I don’t listen to what other people say.”
Julian Nagelsmann in Foxborough
Julian Nagelsmann has pushed the same theme. “It’s always about winning when you talk about Germany,” he said, and “We try to win every game.” He called the Paraguay match “a do-or-die match,” then added, “We need to play a perfect game tomorrow.”
Germany’s path into the knockout round has been uneven. It beat Curaçao 7-1 and Ivory Coast 2-1, then lost 2-1 to Ecuador after squandering the lead, but still finished on top of Group E. That matters because this is Germany’s first elimination game in 12 years.
Gary Lineker and Die Mannschaft
The pressure around Germany has not come from inside the camp alone. Gary Lineker said in 1990, after losing to Die Mannschaft in the World Cup, “Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and, at the end, the Germans always win.” Last week, he went further in L’Equipe and said, “This is one of the weakest German national teams I’ve ever seen.”
Havertz and Nagelsmann have taken the opposite line. The striker 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.” That keeps the focus on the only part that matters in a knockout game: Germany’s performance against Paraguay’s direct approach.
Paraguay’s route through adversity
Paraguay earned the matchup by recovering fast. It lost 4-1 to the Americans in its opening game, then beat Turkey 1-0 and tied Australia 0-0 to advance. Gustavo Alfaro said after that turnaround, “We are the team everybody wanted to be out, and we made it.”
He also framed the challenge in practical terms. “We’ve faced powers — Argentina and Brazil are even bigger than Germany — they are all candidates to win the World Cup,” Alfaro said. He added that Germany “has so many set pieces prepared,” and called the meeting “a big, and nice, challenge.”
The matchup now turns on style as much as status. Nagelsmann described Paraguay as “strong physically” and said, “They play directly and fight for second balls.” Whether Germany can handle that and deliver the “perfect game” he wants will decide Monday in Foxborough.
