2006 FIFA World Cup knockout stage

The knockout stage was the second and final stage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, following the group stage. The top two teams from each group (16 in total) advance to the knockout stage to compete in a single-elimination style tournament. A match was played between the two losing teams of the semi-finals to determine which team finished in third place.

All times local (CEST/UTC+2)

Qualified teams
The top two placed teams from each of the eight groups qualified for the knockout stage.

Germany vs Sweden
Germany progressed thanks to two goals from Lukas Podolski inside the opening 12 minutes. His first was in the fourth minute; German captain Michael Ballack sent a pass to Miroslav Klose, who was tackled by goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson, only for an onrushing Podolski to turn the ball in. Eight minutes later, a pass from Klose found Podolski, who scored his second goal. On 35 minutes, Teddy Lučić received a second yellow card for a foul on Klose. In the 52nd minute, Henrik Larsson won a penalty for Sweden when he was challenged by Christoph Metzelder, only for Larsson himself to shoot the ball over the crossbar. Germany held out for a 2–0 win.

Switzerland vs Ukraine
Despite their early elimination, Switzerland became the first team in the history of the FIFA World Cup to leave an edition of the tournament without conceding a single goal.

Germany vs Argentina
Argentina took the lead through Roberto Ayala early in the second half, but the South Americans’ goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri was injured after the goal and his replacement Leo Franco was unable to stop Miroslav Klose from equalizing with ten minutes left in regulation time. The match went to extra time. With no goals scored, the semifinal spot came down to penalties, during which German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was seen looking at a piece of paper kept in his sock before each Argentinian player would come forward for a penalty kick. Lehmann had researched the penalty taking habits of seven players on the Argentinian team. However, only two players on his list ended up taking a penalty that day. On the attempts by those two players, Lehmann saved one and came close to saving the other. He then had to guess on Esteban Cambiasso's kick since he did not have any information written on his list about Cambiasso. However, he derived an educated guess from the videos he had studied and pretended to read the piece of paper and nodded his head before putting it away, implying to Cambiasso that he did in fact have information on the kicker. Lehmann guessed correctly and saved the penalty, thus winning the shootout for Germany. "Lehmann's list" became so popular in the annals of German football history that it is now in the Haus der Geschichte museum.

Brazil vs France
Defending world champions Brazil went out in the quarter-finals after Zinedine Zidane found an unmarked Thierry Henry from a free kick, the striker having been given a free run at the ball after his marker, Roberto Carlos, stopped to tie his shoe.

Germany vs Italy
This was the fourth time that Italy defeated the host nation of tournament, after France in 1938, Mexico in 1970 and Argentina in 1978.

Third place play-off
This was the third time that Portugal lost to the host nation of tournament, after England in 1966 and South Korea in 2002.

Final
