Ten-man England holds on to beat Mexico 3-2 in World Cup classic
Quick Look
- England secured a thrilling 3-2 victory over Mexico in a World Cup classic at the Azteca, despite playing with ten men for a significant portion of the match.
- Jude Bellingham scored twice and Harry Kane added a penalty, with England holding on against a late Mexican surge.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
England secured a thrilling 3-2 victory over Mexico in a World Cup classic at the Azteca, despite playing with ten men for a significant portion of the match. Jude Bellingham scored twice and Harry Kane added a penalty, with England holding on against a late Mexican surge.
Ten-man England has held on to defeat Mexico 3-2 in a World Cup classic at the Azteca, with Jude Bellingham's brace and Harry Kane's penalty enough to send the Three Lions through.
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What was a simply remarkable game at Mexico's impenetrable fortress will take some time for both teams to recover from.
With the match delayed by an hour due to inclement weather, Mexico started brightly, but it was England who struck twice in the space of 99 seconds through twin Bellingham goals to silence the raucous 80,000-plus fans.
Both goals came via crosses, Buyako Saka the first and Harry Kane the second as Mexico was left stunned.
Minutes later though, the Azteca erupted as Julián Quiñones hammered home after England failed to clear a free kick, hanging on for dear life as the hosts pushed for an equaliser.
After the break, England's task got a whole lot tougher when Jarell Quansah was shown a justifiable straight red card for a horrible tackle in the corner.
However, despite that, England scored again when Kane converted a penalty after Raúl Rangel cut down Anthony Gordon.
England may have felt their two-goal cushion was defendable, but astonishingly the drama was not over, with Kane penalised for a kick in the penalty area to give Mexico a lifeline.
Raúl Jiménez converted the spot kick to set up a stunningly tense final 20 minutes, bolstered by a whopping 11 minutes of stoppage time.
Mexico threw everything they had at the England defence, but the Three Lions stood tall and held out the World Cup hosts, who lost a competitive game at their spiritual home for just the third time in history.
"It was a crazy game," Harry Kane told the BBC.
"We had to fight and we had to find something.
"The occasion, the team, everything against us, we found a way."
Earlier, two goals from Erling Haaland gave Norway a 2-1 victory over five-time winners Brazil in New Jersey.
England and Norway will meet in the quarterfinal in Miami.
Look back on how all the action unfolded in our live blog.
Open Questions
- What was the exact nature of the Trump call regarding the US striker's ban?
- What was the specific inclement weather that delayed the match?