Mexico’s World Cup run ends in heartbreaking loss to England

MEXICO CITY — Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane carried England to the World Cup quarterfinals, overcoming a raucous crowd, the elevation of Estadio Azteca and a man disadvantage in the second half to beat Mexico in a 3-2 thriller on Sunday night.

Bellingham scored two goals 98 seconds apart in the first half, and six minutes after Jarell Quansah was sent off, Kane converted a penalty to restore England’s two-goal lead.

England moves on to face Norway on Saturday in Miami Gardens, Fla., for a spot in the semifinals.

“It was a crazy game. We had to fight,” Kane said, his voice hoarse. “I can’t really talk, but the occasion, the team, everything against us, we found a way.”

Bellingham stunned the crowd of 80,824 at a venue where Mexico was unbeaten in 10 World Cup matches, including three this year, when he scored on a header in the 36th minute and again in the 38th on a pass from Kane.

Julián Quiñones scored for El Tri in the 42nd minute, and the game appeared to turn in Mexico’s favor when Quansah was shown a red card in the 54th for a dangerous foul on Jesús Gallardo.

But England was awarded a penalty for a challenge by Mexico goalkeeper Raúl Rangel, and Kane converted for his sixth goal of this tournament and 14th of his World Cup career, matching Gerd Müller of West Germany for fifth on the scoring list. Kane has six goals in this tournament, one behind Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland in the Golden Boot race.

Kane then committed a foul that made him the first player since at least 1966 to score and concede a penalty in a World Cup game. Raúl Jiménez converted the kick with a stutter-step approach to move El Tri within 3-2.

Mexico attacked relentlessly over the final 21 minutes, plus 11 minutes of stoppage time, but goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and England’s defenders held steady.

“This is probably one of the biggest England wins in a while, probably the biggest one I can remember as a fan or player,” Bellingham said. “The best night of my England career.”

Midfielder Jordan Henderson was taken to a hospital after the match with a wrist injury, coach Thomas Tuchel said. He was hurt when he tumbled over an advertising board during the postgame celebration.

“It’s quite a serious injury,” Tuchel said.

Mexico has not reached the quarterfinals since hosting in 1986. Since then, it has lost in the round of 16 eight times, failed to advance past the group stage in 2022 and was disqualified from the 1990 tournament.

It was Mexico’s third competitive loss at Azteca, which opened in 1966, after a pair of 2-1 defeats in World Cup qualifiers, to Costa Rica in 2001 and to Honduras in 2013.

The stadium sits 7,300 feet (2,200 meters) above sea level and England’s travel schedule gave it no opportunity to get used to the altitude. Mexico’s passionate fans blasted horns outside the England hotel to disrupt players’ sleep, and the start of the match was delayed an hour because of a thunderstorm.

No matter. England is on to the quarterfinals as it seeks its first title since 1966, and its outnumbered fans continued their tradition of serenading the victorious Three Lions with Oasis’ “Wonderwall.”

Rodriguez writes for the Associated Press.

England 3, Mexico 2 — 90th minute

Mexico continues to bombard the England box with crosses and and shots, but hasn’t had much success. Mexico has possessed the ball 84% of the time for the last 15 minutes. It has 14 shots, including five on goal.

There will be at least 11 minutes of stoppage time for Mexico to try to force extra time.

England 3, Mexico 2 — 89th minute

Mexico is putting intense pressure on the England defense as it looks to score and take advantage of the 10-man England squad — and it’ll have at least 11 minutes of stoppage time to try to tie the score.

Mexico’s Edson Álvarez had a prime opportunity to score in the 80th minute off a corner kick, but he sent the ball wide of the goal. In the 81st minute, a shot from Santiago Gimenez from the center of box went just over the goal.

Mexico is sending up cross passes in an attempt to open up the England defense and tire out its defenders. Mexico has possessed the ball 63% of the match and has 11 shots, including four on goal.

England can’t get out of its own box. It is just trying to survive.

England 3, Mexico 2 — 69th minute

Mexico star Raúl Jiménez scored on a penalty kick in the 69th minute after England’s Harry Kane committed a foul in the box, making it a one-goal match again.

England’s Marc Guehl received a yellow card just before the penalty kick attempt.

England 3, Mexico 1 — 60th minute

Harry Kane scored on a penalty kick to restore England’s two-goal lead.

Mexico goalkeeper Raul Rangel committed a foul on Anthony Gordon as the England forward tried to get to the ball in the box, leading to the penalty kick.

England is down to 10 players after a red card, but Mexico needs to respond quickly.

England 2, Mexico 1 — 54th minute

England defender Jarell Quansah received a red card after a VAR decision determined he made an egregious foul when he slide tackled Jesus Gallardo on a challenge.

Players on the sideline got into a brief confrontation after the foul, which was initially not called by the on-field referee. The red card was given after a video review.

England came out of halftime playing more aggressively and controlling the ball. In the 49th minute, a shot by Nico O’Reilly from outside the box hit the right goalpost, sparing Mexico of another two-goal deficit.

But England will be down to 10 players for the rest of the match, preventing a great opportunity for Mexico.

England 2, Mexico 1 — Halftime

Mexico star Raúl Jiménez nearly scored two times in the final minutes of the first half, and Jude Bellingham prevented a seemingly sure-thing goal for Mexico off a corner kick as England clung on to the lead at halftime.

Mexico really turned on the pressure after Bellingham scored two goals in two minutes for England. After Julián Quiñones scored to cut into England’s lead, Jiménez made a left-footed shot that went just right of the goal.

Then, a Jiménez header seemed destined to find the top left corner of the net until England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made a spectacular leaping save.

England 2, Mexico 1 — 42nd minute

Mexico star Julián Quiñones scored on a loose ball after a free kick to cut England’s lead in half and jolt Azteca Stadium back into a sustained roar.

Jesus Gallardo was awarded a free kick on the left side outside of the box following a foul by Bukayo Saka. His kick went into the middle of the six-yard box, where it hit multiple players before bouncing to Quiñones, who didn’t miss from point-blank range.

England 2, Mexico 0 — 38th minute

Capitalizing on speedy drive down the field, England’s Jude Bellingham scored on a header off a perfect cross pass from Bukayo Saka to take lead.

Two minutes later, Bellingham scored again on a feed from Harry Kane to cap the disastrous sequence for Mexico.

Until England scored, Mexico was the better team, controlling the ball and launching attacks with some regularity in transition. It’ll need to muster everything it has and play off the home crowd’s energy to mount a comeback.

Mexico 0, England 0 — 24th minute

Mexico star Raúl Jiménez nearly scored on a header in the 15th minute, but England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made a spectacular, one-handed save to thwart the scoring chance.

The perfectly executed, diving header by Jiménez came on a cross from Roberto Alverado.

Mexico has been the better team up until the first hydration break. Possession time is split 50-50. Mexico has had three shots, with one on goal. England has had two corner kicks, but is still looking for its first shot.

Mexico 0, England 0 — 10th minute

The first corner kick of the match resulted in a thwarted scoring opportunity for England when a cross from Bukayo Saka failed to find the mark and went out of bounds.

Both teams playing with a lot of energy. England midfielder Declan Rice received a yellow card in the first minute.

With the partisan crowd roaring in approval with every Mexico possession on England’s side of the pitch, a right-footed shot by Raúl Jiménez outside the box was blocked in the third minute.

After an hour-long delay because of extreme weather in Mexico City, Mexico vs. England in the World Cup round of 16 is underway.

Mexico is coming off a 2-0 win over Ecuador in its first knockout stages win at a World Cup since 1986 — the last time Mexico hosted the tournament. Mexico has averaged two goals a game over its four 2026 World Cup wins and hasn’t concede any.

England’s World Cup journey hasn’t gone as smoothly. It needed two goals from Harry Kane in the final 15 minutes to defeat the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the round of 32. It won Group L despite playing to a scoreless draw with Ghana.

Kane has scored five of England’s eight goals.

The start of the Mexico vs. England game at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City has been delayed until 6 p.m. PDT because of severe weather.

The announcement was displayed on big screens at the stadium roughly 45 minutes before the scheduled start of the game.

A view of the pitch at Azteca Stadium before the start of Mexico vs. England at the World Cup on Sunday.

(Darrian Traynor / Getty Images)

Earlier in the week, FIFA officials were mulling over whether to push up the start time of the game in order to avoid thunderstorms that were in the forecast for Sunday night. Ultimately, they opted against it and decided to monitor the situation instead.

Lightning is in the forecast until 6 p.m. PDT. Rain is expected to continue until about 10 p.m.

The winner of tonight’s match will face Norway in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Norway defeated Brazil 2-1 on Sunday.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico once again enjoyed a night of celebration with its fans, this time after defeating an old nemesis — the knockout stage of the World Cup.

El Tri won its first knockout match at a World Cup since 1986, beating Ecuador 2-0 on Tuesday night at the majestic Azteca Stadium packed with 80,824 fans.

I rose from my living room couch before Mexico’s World Cup match against Czechia when the Telemundo announcer stated it was time for the Mexican national anthem.

The public address system at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City played a short string intro. My back straightened. I pressed my right hand against my chest horizontally in the traditional gesture that accompanies the tune. And then I recited the opening lyrics to a song I’ve heard all my life but that I only began committing to memory this month:

Mexicanos al grito de guerra / El acero aprestad y bridón / Y retiemble en sus centros la tierra / Al sonoro rugir del cañon

MEXICO CITY — After Mexico’s 2-0 victory over Ecuador in the first round of the knockout stage of the World Cup, fans streamed into the streets here to celebrate, blowing horns, waving flags and shouting: “Let’s go to the Angel!”

An estimated 1 million people had flocked to the Angel of Independence, a towering monument on Mexico City’s main boulevard, to watch the game on massive screens. More revelers headed there after the match to party. Red, green and white fireworks exploded, music boomed and strangers danced and cheered together.

But the street was much too crowded. Panic surged, and many fans found themselves packed together with no clear escape.

After the total failure that was Mexico’s participation in the Qatar 2022 World Cup, where they were eliminated in the group stage, the future looked very dire for “El Tri.” By 2024, the situation had worsened after another international failure at the Copa América. The 2026 World Cup co-hosts had even more pressure now. In a crisis-control move, the Mexico Football Federation opted to bring back its proven problem solver, head coach “El Vasco” Javier Aguirre, for a third stint.

In a short time, Aguirre was able to shape “El Tri” into a competitive squad by breaking from his usual approach. The man who shockingly demoted then-24-year-old goalkeeper Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa in favor of a more experienced player prior to the 2010 World Cup was now relying on upstarts.

England famously found itself on the wrong side of World Cup history at Azteca Stadium, surrendering Diego Maradona’s iconic “Hand of God” goal and another strike known as the tournament’s “most beautiful goal.”

Maradona and eventual champion Argentina eliminated England 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup, leaving the Brits to stew over their link to a soccer legend.

England will return to Azteca Stadium on Sunday to take on World Cup co-host Mexico in a round-of-16 match kicking off at 5 p.m. PDT and airing on Fox and Telemundo.

MEXICO CITY — César Aquino had never been to the Fan Festival in Mexico City’s Zócalo. But on Wednesday, the day after Mexico beat Ecuador 2-0 to secure its fourth consecutive World Cup victory, the fan and his wife, Angélica Arias, walked to the plaza wearing two identical caps. Both had the same question embroidered on them: “¿Y si sí?”

In English, it translates to “What if we do?”

It’s a catchphrase that fans, players and public figures have used to encourage people to dream that the Mexican national soccer team can exceed expectations.

“I’m pleasantly surprised by how the team has progressed,” Aquino said. “The enthusiasm of the people is reaching all of us; little by little, that excitement has taken hold of us. That’s why I’m here.”

For my entire adult life, I’ve looked on in disturbed bemusement as too many Southern Californians freaked out every time Mexican Americans expressed love for their ancestral and natal love through soccer.

I laughed as local media couldn’t understand why so many of them booed when then-California Gov. Pete Wilson inaugurated the first match of the 1994 World Cup at the Rose Bowl, a year where he rode anti-immigrant sentiment to reelection. I shook my head in 1998 after 91,000 fans booed the U.S. soccer squad in a Gold Cup match at the Coliseum that Mexico won 1-0, and all U.S. star Alexi Lalas could pull from that was that Latinos were treasonous ingrates.

“I would never be caught dead cheering for any other team than the United States because I know what it’s given me,” he told The Times after the game.

The anger and befuddlement was reflective of an era where demographics were changing in Southern California and longtimers didn’t like it one bit. It also emerged at a time when U.S. Soccer was finally establishing a respectable team — and realizing that no matter how great a squad and tradition it could establish, it would never eclipse the love diasporas have for their heritage soccer squads.

Lalas is now the boorish American face of Fox Sports’ not-bad World Cup coverage. I don’t care enough for him to know if his attitude has evolved nearly 30 years after his pendejo words — but Southern California definitely has. And how the media has covered Southern California’s reaction to Mexico’s thrilling Mundial run proves it.

Instead of treating all the watch parties and spontaneous after-match celebrations across Southern California as anti-American affronts, reporters are covering it as not just a natural response but a righteous one a year after continual ICE raids left most of Latino areas empty. Television stations that dispatch helicopters over joyous scenes in Santa Ana, Huntington Park, East Los Angeles and so many other places across the Southland are treating the celebrations like they would a Lakers or Dodgers championship instead of something foreign.

Instead of writing pieces having to explain why so many Mexican Americans are rooting for El Tri, Latino reporters are getting into the intricacies of the fandom — explainers on Merlin (the duck who has emerged as Mexico’s unofficial mascot) and the significance of the slogan ‘¿Y si sí?’ (“And what if we can?”) and listicles on where the best watch parties are. People can wear La Verde — the nickname now affixed to Mexico’s soccer jersey — without drawing a second glance or politicians railing about it.

Why, even this viejo columnista — who will never forget all the hate mail he received during the 2002 World Cup for writing a columna for the late, great Pacific News Service about why he was rooting for Mexico — was able to write about finally trying to memorize Mexico’s national anthem in his day job.

All of this is another important milestone in a Southern California that truly embraces all of its diversity at all times — yay us!

Media coverage can, of course, switch toward the negative the moment those celebrations turn too crazy, like when Huntington Park police arrested 31 fans in 1998 after Mexico advanced to the knockout phase of that summer’s World Cup. But the desmadre so far has been mostly incident-free. Let’s see what happens after tonight’s England-Mexico match.

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It’s knockout time at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The round of 16 is in full swing, with tournament co-hosts U.S. and Mexico among the teams vying for a spot in next week’s quarterfinals.

Here’s everything you need to know about the World Cup round-of-16 matches being played Sunday and Monday across the U.S., Mexico and Canada (all times Pacific).