Klopp's criticism of VAR opened a new debate after Germany's elimination from the World Cup
Jürgen Klopp sharply criticized the decision by which Jonathan Tah's goal was disallowed in extra time of the Germany and Paraguay match at the 2026 World Cup, after which the German national team was eliminated in the first knockout round. According to FIFA's official report, the match played on June 29, 2026 at Boston Stadium ended 1:1, and Paraguay advanced with a 4:3 victory after a penalty shootout. Germany equalized through Kai Havertz in the 54th minute, after Julio Enciso had put Paraguay ahead in the 42nd minute. The key moment of the debate occurred in the first period of extra time, when Tah headed the ball into the net for an apparent 2:1, but the goal was disallowed after VAR intervention because of Waldemar Anton's contact with Paraguayan goalkeeper Orlando Gill.
According to a report by the German agency dpa, published in media outlets that followed the reactions after the match, referee Jalal Jayed from Morocco initially awarded the goal, but after a signal from the VAR room he went to review the footage at the side of the pitch and changed the decision. The contentious situation was one in which Anton, during the taking of a corner, found himself in goalkeeper Gill's path, and the refereeing assessment was that the German defender had illegally impeded the goalkeeper before Tah's header. German figures involved, some refereeing analysts and several former players judged that the contact was not sufficient to disallow the goal. Others, including former English referee Mark Clattenburg according to the same report, considered it a foul.
Klopp: if that is a foul, the criterion must apply everywhere
Klopp's reaction resonated especially because the former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund coach, and current head of global soccer at Red Bull, connected the argument with common practices in club football. According to the AS report and German media claims, Klopp said that Arsenal, if such a criterion were applied consistently, would not have been English champions because a large portion of their goals had come through similar blocks, movements and pressure in the penalty area after set pieces. In that assessment, it was not only a criticism of one decision, but a broader question of the consistency of refereeing criteria between league competitions and major national-team tournaments.
Klopp called the outcome brutal because, according to his interpretation, one situation that is tolerated in many matches decided the fate of the entire encounter. His message was that football can accept a stricter interpretation of contact with goalkeepers, but only if such a standard is clearly communicated and applied consistently. Precisely that difference is at the centre of the debate after Germany's elimination.
According to IFAB rules, a foul is awarded when a player carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force pushes, charges, jumps at, trips or otherwise physically impedes an opponent, and contact that is judged to be a foul is punished with a direct free kick or a penalty kick if it occurs in one's own penalty area. The rules do not contain a simple formula by which every touch on a goalkeeper is automatically a foul; rather, the decision depends on the assessment of intensity, position, impact on the possibility of playing the ball and the context of the action itself. That is why such situations particularly often turn into controversy: video footage can show contact, but by itself it does not provide the answer as to whether that contact was sufficient to disallow a goal.
A match decided by a combination of inefficiency, VAR and penalties
The match itself did not come down only to the controversial refereeing decision. According to FIFA's official data and match reports, Paraguay took the lead near the end of the first half with Enciso's goal, and Germany responded early in the second half through Havertz. Germany had more possession and longer periods of pressure, but did not create clear chances often enough against an organized Paraguayan block. Paraguay, on the other hand, patiently defended the space in front of their own goal and waited for moments to break quickly, relying on midfield discipline and the security of goalkeeper Gill.
After Tah's disallowed goal, the match remained 1:1 and went to a shootout. According to ESPN's report on the encounter, José Canale scored the first penalty in the sudden-death series, while Gill, with his saves in the shootout, became one of the key players in Paraguay's progression. Germany, according to reports by Sky Sports and other international media, missed three shots from the spot, including attempts by Havertz, Nick Woltemade and Tah. There was particular symbolism in the fact that Tah, the player whose potentially decisive goal had earlier been disallowed, later failed to convert the kick with which Germany could have stayed in the game.
The defeat is additionally powerful because Germany, four-time world champions, according to statistical reviews in international reports, lost a penalty shootout at the World Cup for the first time. In the past, that very segment of the competition had often been associated with German calmness and competitive efficiency. This time, however, neither experience nor historical authority was enough. Paraguay survived periods of pressure, took advantage of moments in the shootout and achieved one of the greatest results in their modern national-team history.
Nagelsmann under pressure after another disappointment
Elimination in the round of 32 placed additional pressure on coach Julian Nagelsmann and the German Football Association. According to the dpa report, Nagelsmann called the disallowed goal a major scandal and said that the situation, in his opinion, was nowhere near a foul. Such a statement shows how much the refereeing decision overshadowed the analysis of the performance, but it does not remove questions about Germany's display throughout the tournament. Germany reached the knockout stage with high expectations, but already in the first elimination match was left without tournament continuity.
Klopp, according to the AS report, alongside criticism of VAR, also spoke about the broader state of German football. He said that there are many ways to win a football match and that solutions must be found, including better play through the wings and a stronger structure for player development. In his words, the message that changes cannot begin only at senior national-team level, but already in younger age categories, particularly stood out. According to available information, Nagelsmann's future on the Germany bench after this defeat has not been officially resolved. The issue will probably be viewed on two levels: the immediate result and the long-term assessment of the direction of the national team. On the one hand, elimination by Paraguay in the first knockout round for a country with Germany's footballing tradition represents a heavy blow. On the other hand, changing the coach would not by itself solve problems that include the development of player profiles, the balance between possession and verticality, and psychological stability in elimination matches.
Why Arsenal is mentioned and what that comparison says about modern set pieces
Klopp's reference to Arsenal was not accidental. In modern football, set pieces have become a particularly important part of attacking strategy, and leading clubs invest significant resources in set-piece coaches, blocks, movements in the six-yard-box area and the creation of short separations between attackers and markers. In such actions, players often try to occupy space in front of the goalkeeper or prevent defensive players from reaching the zone where the ball drops in time. The line between legally taking up a position and illegal blocking is very thin, especially when everything happens before or immediately after a corner is taken.
When Klopp says that a strict interpretation of such contacts would change the assessment of Arsenal's goals from set pieces, he is in fact pointing to the question of standards. If strong physical battles in the six-yard box are allowed in league football, then a national-team match at the World Cup should not suddenly be decided by a much stricter threshold. If, however, the aim is to protect goalkeepers from such blocks, football institutions would have to announce this clearly and enforce it in all competitions. Otherwise, decisions remain exposed to the impression of selectivity, and precisely that impression is most damaging to trust in VAR.
Here it is important to emphasize that VAR, according to its basic purpose, should not re-referee every contact situation, but intervene in the case of a clear and obvious error regarding goals, penalty kicks, direct red cards and mistaken identity of players. That is why, after this match, the main debate is about whether the referee's initial decision to award the goal was really so wrong that it required a review of the footage and the disallowing of the goal. If the answer is affirmative, the refereeing team can claim that the system fulfilled its purpose. If not, VAR once again found itself in the role of a mechanism that amplified controversy instead of reducing it.
Paraguay seized the opportunity and changed the tone of the tournament
While most of the international debate was directed towards Germany's disappointment and VAR, Paraguay achieved a result of enormous sporting significance. According to reports by agencies and international media, the Paraguayan team withstood the pressure of one of the most successful national-team programs in World Cup history and secured progression to the round of 16. Goalkeeper Orlando Gill stood out as the hero of the shootout, and Enciso's goal at the end of the first half gave Paraguay an emotional and tactical foundation for the rest of the encounter. The team had to defend deep in the second half, but retained enough discipline to reach penalties.
According to a Reuters report carried by international media, Paraguayan president Santiago Peña declared June 30, 2026 a national holiday to mark the national team's progression after the victory over Germany. Such a move shows how much the result resonated beyond the sporting framework. For Paraguay, victory over the four-time world champions carries strong symbolic value and confirms how much the expanded tournament with 48 national teams can create room for surprises in the early knockout rounds.
For the 2026 edition, FIFA introduced a format with 48 national teams and 104 matches, hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States of America. That broader format means that the knockout stage begins earlier and that favourites have less room for gradually finding their rhythm in elimination duels. Germany felt that risk in the hardest way. One match, one disallowed goal and several missed penalties were enough for their tournament to end as early as June 29.
VAR once again at the centre of trust in refereeing
The decision in the Germany and Paraguay encounter once again opened the question that has followed video technology since its introduction: should VAR primarily eliminate obvious errors or strive for maximum technical accuracy in every decision. In theory, these two goals are connected. In practice, however, football situations are often not mathematically clear. Contact can exist, but its relevance depends on interpretation. A goalkeeper can be impeded, but the question remains whether the player actively committed a foul or merely occupied space in the kind of crowd typical of set pieces.
That is why the case of Tah's disallowed goal is so combustible. It is not an offside that can be measured with lines, nor an obvious handball visible from one angle. It is a refereeing interpretation of contact in a zone of high physical density. The referee on the pitch awarded the goal, VAR believed there was reason for a review, and the final decision changed the course of the match.
For football institutions, the biggest challenge after matches like this is not only to explain one decision, but to restore a sense of predictability. People find it harder to accept the impression that the same contact is tacitly allowed in one competition and turned into a reason for disallowing a goal in another. Klopp's reaction therefore had a strong resonance: it articulated frustration over the difference between the practice that football sees every day in clubs and the practice that appeared in one of the most important matches of the German national team in recent years.
Germany remains with questions, Paraguay with new momentum
After this elimination, Germany will have to analyse more than one VAR decision. The disallowed goal truly was a turning point, but tournaments are rarely lost in only one action. According to match reports, Germany's play had periods of dominance, but often without enough speed, width and finishing sharpness. Klopp's criticism of the performance, including the remark that different ways to win must be found, additionally reminds us that top national teams must have more solutions when facing a disciplined opponent.
Paraguay, by contrast, comes out of this match with a major psychological advantage. Victory over Germany in a World Cup elimination match changed the perception of the team and gave it a strong argument to enter the next round without complexes. Gill's saves, Enciso's goal and Canale's composure in the shootout will remain the central motifs of Paraguay's evening in Foxborough. Regardless of the debate about VAR, Paraguay had to survive everything that happened after 1:1 and showed enough resilience to turn controversy into a historic victory.
For Germany, however, the consequences will be measured for longer. The debate about the refereeing decision will probably last for days, but the sporting questions will be more lasting: how to restore reliability in the closing stages of major competitions, how to build an attack with more solutions, and how to align the development strategy with the expectations that follow one of the most decorated national teams in the world. Klopp, with his comment, only amplified what the defeat had already exposed. Germany was not eliminated only because of one decision, but precisely that decision will be remembered as the moment in which its path at the 2026 World Cup was irreversibly broken.
Sources:
- FIFA – official match report Germany – Paraguay, result, scorers and match data (link)
- news.de / dpa – report on the disallowed goal, reactions by Julian Nagelsmann, Jürgen Klopp and refereeing analysts (link)
- AS – Klopp's statements about Arsenal, the VAR decision and the state of German football after the defeat by Paraguay (link)
- ESPN – summary of the result, shootout and key events in the Germany and Paraguay match (link)
- Sky Sports – international report on Germany's defeat, the disallowed goal and the missed penalties (link)
- Red Bull – official announcement and description of Klopp's role as head of global soccer at Red Bull (link)
- IFAB – Laws of the Game documents and framework for interpreting fouls and contact between players (link)
- TimesLIVE / Reuters – report on Paraguay's national holiday after the victory over Germany (link)