Paraguay at the FIFA World Cup in France by qualifying in second place in South America, behind Argentina. The first round matches were against Bulgaria (0–0), Spain (0–0), and Nigeria (3–1; goals Celso Ayala, Miguel Ángel Benítez and José Cardozo). Paraguay qualified to the second round (Round of 16) to be defeated in a thrilling match against hosts and eventual World Champions France. France only scored through Laurent Blanc in the 114th minute, during the second half of overtime (making it the first golden goal scored in a World Cup). Paraguay's central defending duo (Carlos Gamarra and Celso Ayala) and goalkeeper José Luis Chilavert were selected
Germany at the FIFA World Cup Germany played the favoured Hungarian Golden Team in the first round of the tournament and suffered a 3-8 loss, their highest World Cup defeat to this day. In the final, Hungary was up by two goals after only eight minutes, so it came as a surprise that the German team not only quickly equalized but turned the game around in the 84th minute with a goal scored by Helmut Rahn. The strongly contested game between Germany and host nation England went into extra time after a score of 2-2 after 90 minutes. Geoff Hurst's goal in the 101st minute is