New Delhi: After 4 successive wins at their renowned fortress the Azteca, Mexico’s World Cup dreams ended in a tense however heart-breaking 3-2 loss to England early Monday. For the 8th time in their last 9 World Cup looks, they have actually stopped working to make it past the Round of 16.
< source media ="(min-width:768px)" alt ="England's Jude Bellingham runs past Mexico's midfielders during their Round of 16 match. (AFP)" > < img src ="https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-img/img/2026/07/06/400x225/England-s-Jude-Bellingham-runs-past-Mexico-s-midfi_1783352550584.jpg"alt ="England's Jude Bellingham runs past Mexico's midfielders during their Round of 16 match. (AFP)"title ="England's Jude Bellingham runs past Mexico's midfielders during their Round of 16 match. (AFP)"width ="360"height ="202"loading ="eager">While Mexico managed the rate of the video game and controlled belongings (67 %), they had a hard time to produce enough high quality possibilities in open play to evaluate the English backline and beat goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. This is shown in Expected Goals (xG)– Mexico made 1.88 while England overperformed their 1.61 figure.
Jude Bellingham protected a 2-0 cushion for England by scoring off fast counter-attacks in the 36th and 38th minutes. With simply 98 seconds apart, it’s the quickest brace by an England gamer in World Cup history, and third-quickest total.
Declan Rice was the designer of the opening objective by making a marauding run exposing spaces in the best side of the Mexican midfield before playing through Saka, who discovered Bellingham with a deep cross.
The 2nd objective arised from England’s extreme pushing as Elliott Anderson dispossessed Gilberto Mora and rapidly passed it to Anthony Gordon. This triggered mayhem in the Mexican backline as Bellingham used an outlet to Gordon and established a give-and-go with Harry Kane.
Mexico’s star assailant Julian Quinones made it 2-1 from a set-piece in the 42nd minute. Bellingham avoided an equaliser at the end of the half throughout a Mexico corner with a desperate protective clearance away from Cesar Montes.
It ran the risk of being a long night for England when Jarell Quansah was dispatched in the 54th minute for a harmful slide deal with on Jesus Gallardo. It was Mexico once again who had no response to England’s strength in shift.
A threatening long ball from Pickford quickly discovered Kane, who snapped it to Gordon. Now marshalled by alternative Edson Alvarez in location of Montes, the Mexican defence was quickly bypassed by a timeless path one relocation.
Having actually not been evaluated a lot in this competition till then, Mexico’s goalkeeper Raul Rangel unsuccessfully challenged Gordon in a rush of blood, yielding a charge that Kane dispatched to bring back England’s two-goal cushion.
Mexico got a charge of their own when Kane fouled Brian Gutierrez while trying a protective clearance in the 69th minute. Raul Jimenez transformed it, however that was the last of any genuine Mexican scoring danger.
Thomas Tuchel subbed on Djed Spence for Nico O’Reilly to safeguard the left side, in addition to John Stones and Dan Burn to include supports in main defence. It worked as Mexico appeared to lose any sense of assaulting coherence versus England’s low block, particularly because Quinones was no longer managed area to run in behind protectors by means of long balls.
Offered the English progressively tiring in the 2nd half and no longer providing any assaulting danger, the scenario for Mexico required client accumulation play and peace and composure on the ball. With a bit more incisive death and clearness of idea, Mexico might have caused more protective mistakes from England.
Mexico appeared mad and stressed, merely tossing outfielders into the box and mindlessly trying aerial crosses from Gallardo on the left and Roberto Alvarado on the. All England required to do was preserve their protective shape, positional discipline and block shots and clear the ball away.
Assisted by Stones and Burn, England did so with aplomb as the pattern of crosses, specifically from Gallardo, were stubborn and foreseeable. Mexico head coach Javier Aguirre’s alternatives were mostly inadequate, stopping working to capitalise on the area provided out large from England’s compact shape.
In the days prior, England required to physically acclimatise to Azteca’s high elevation– 2,240 metres above water level– which accelerates tiredness and needs making significant stylistic modifications throughout a match.
Regardless of being a male down amidst thousands of booing Mexicans, it was the English who consistently came up trumps as the mindset beasts– as if they were the home side consistently penalizing Mexican errors.
