Canale and Gill the heroes as Paraguay hand Germany first World Cup shootout defeat

Germany exited the World Cup in Boston not with a whimper or even a cry of pain, just an extended wrestle into the dust at the hands of a thrillingly dogged Paraguay, followed by the most extraordinary of penalty shootouts. Not only did Germany lose their first shootout since the original Panenka one of 1976. They did so in a whirl of errors, shanked kicks and what amounted to a sporting meltdown in the New England gloaming. Paraguay will now progress to play a last-16 tie in Philadelphia, but not before celebrating this result as surely the greatest in their football history. And rightly so, after a performance of wonderful heart and defensive discipline. For Julian Nagelsmann New England feels like the end of the road. This is not the Germany of the high-end academy boom years. But they’re better than this. Jürgen Klopp has spent the current tournament cheerfully judging Nagelsmann from the TV studio, apologising for judging him, and generally trying to pretend he wouldn’t actively love to have a go in the job. That chance might just be around the corner. Be careful what you wish for Jürgen. Boston Stadium has been a lovely host site, a huge rolling green and ­fragrant campus with a sense of ­comfortable old-fashioned ­grandeur, the kind of place where you half expect a vast presidential float to come rumbling in at one end. It was full here at kick-off, packed out to its sweeping upper tiers, blasted by the violent afternoon sun, a ziggurat of sweeping, swooping angles. …