Paraguay

France came to Philadelphia as the tournament's outstanding team and left it having won the sort of match that outstanding teams do not always enjoy. Paraguay, who had knocked out Germany a round earlier,…

Germany used to win penalty shootouts in their sleep. Now they have lost one at a World Cup for the first time, and with it gone is any pretence that this is a passing slump. This piece looks at the night…

Every World Cup makes a household name out of someone nobody had heard of a month earlier. This time it is a 26-year-old goalkeeper from a Buenos Aires club side, who spent one unforgettable night turning…

Not every qualification arrives on a wave of noise. Some are signed off quietly, with a clean sheet and a clock running down. This covers the 0-0 in San Francisco that carried Australia into the World Cup last…

This piece examines how Paraguay pulled off one of the more extraordinary results of the group stage, absorbing a relentless Turkish offensive while a player down for the entire second half. We look at the…

The United States opened their home World Cup with a performance that answered plenty of questions and raised several more. This piece looks beyond the scoreline to examine what Pochettino's tactical approach,…