England holds pressure, beats Mexico at Azteca and reaches the quarterfinals of the World Cup
England beat Mexico 3-2 this Sunday (5), at the Azteca Stadium, and secured their place in the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup.
Taking advantage of a moment of inattention from their opponent, the English took a 2-0 lead with two goals scored by Jude Bellingham. Julián Quiñones hit a beautiful shot to reduce the score in favor of the home team. Harry Kane scored the third, from the penalty spot, while Raúl Jiménez scored another penalty.
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In the final stretch of the match, England resisted the North American team's attacks with one player less, as Jarell Quansah was sent off nine minutes into the second half. With the result, Thomas Tuchel's team silenced Azteca and made the home team suffer their first defeat at the stadium in World Cups in history.
Now, the English face Norway, who beat Brazil by a score of 2 to 1. The duel will take place next Saturday (11), at 6pm (Brasília time), at the Hard Rock Stadium, in Miami.
The Mexican team ends its campaign in the round of 16, a stage it has already reached on seven other occasions. El Tricolor's best result occurred in the 1970 and 1986 editions, when it only stopped in the quarterfinals.
About the game
After a very truncated start, Mexico had the first big opportunity in the 15th minute. Winger Roberto Alvarado crossed to the head of center forward Raúl Jiménez, who saw goalkeeper Jordan Pickford make a great save. England responded at 26, with a shot from winger Anthony Gordon that ended up in the hands of goalkeeper Raúl "Tala" Rangel.
In the 36th minute, winger Bukayo Saka made a beautiful move down the right and crossed for midfielder Jude Bellingham to open the scoring. In the next move, the English recovered the ball in the attacking field and it went to center forward Harry Kane. He played for the middle and Bellingham appeared to expand.
Before the end of the first half, the Mexican team managed to close the gap. After the ball was thrown into the area, the European defense cleared it badly and winger Julián Quiñones got the ball to make it 2-1.
In stoppage time, Jiménez had the chance to equalize, but hit a cross to the left of the opponent's goal. Soon after, the striker himself attempted a header and Pickford performed a miracle to save England.
Four minutes into the second half, full-back Nico O'Reilly took a risk from the edge of the area and hit the Mexican post. Shortly afterwards, full-back Jarell Quansah hit Jesús Gallardo with a strong tackle. After reviewing the play in the VAR booth, referee Alireza Faghani showed the English defender a red card.
With one more on the field, Mexico went on the attack in search of equalizing the dispute. However, it was England who found the net once again at Azteca. Gordon was brought down in the area by Raúl Rangel and the referee signaled the penalty. Kane took a firm shot and made it 3-1.
Undeterred by the goal conceded, the Mexicans continued to press and had a penalty in their favor in the 24th minute, after Kane hit midfielder Brian Gutiérrez's leg. Jiménez took the penalty and reduced the match to 3-2.
For the rest of the match, the duel was limited to pressure from Mexico until the final minutes. However, all attempts by the El Tricolor team stopped at the English marking organization, which ended up qualifying for the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
Without Germany, Brazil remains at the top of the list of World Cup champions
Source: CNN