Those England fans who opted against the graveyard shift will awaken to news of the national team’s most impressive World Cup knockout win for 60 years.
This was one of those vintage England nights that pushed and pulled and ebbed and flowed. It was breathless drama, played at 7,350 feet altitude and without a moment of pause to gather your thoughts. It rewarded those who stayed up into the early hours, and through an hour’s weather delay to kick off, in order to tune in.
Thomas Tuchel’s side, who scored through Jude Bellingham - twice in two minutes - and a Harry Kane penalty, will face Brazil’s conquerors Norway in a Miami quarter-final on Saturday after ousting co-hosts Mexico in their own back yard.
The Mexicans had never been defeated on home soil in a World Cup before. Ten-man England became the first, digging oh so deep after Jarell Quansah’s red card with 36 minutes, plus 11 of stoppage time, still to go. At Estadio Azteca, they prevailed.
England overcome altitude with attitude
Had there ever been an England match with as much external noise beforehand as this? Your memory was tested trying to remember one.
“Preparation complete”, read England’s social media channels as the (delayed) kick-off approached. As complete as can be, at least. It takes athletes ten days at the very least to fully acclimatise to high altitude this extreme; England had been here less than 48 hours before. Tough.
High altitude of 7,350 feet above sea level, away disadvantage against co-hosts riding the crest of a wave, sleep disrupted by Mexican fans outside the England hotel, a hostile atmosphere where fans were vastly outnumbered: the Three Lions had plenty to overcome, some rather imbalanced scales to tip back in their favour.
How courageously they did. How deep into their lungs and into their reserves of resolve each and every one of the England players had to reach. What they found was a stamina they perhaps never knew they had.
Mexico’s pressure as England closed out a victory was an intense as can be, a cauldron-like atmosphere roaring them on. The Three Lions were caged in but not cagey; they held their ground.
By the end, it felt important to acknowledge that Mexico’s daunting record of two competitive defeats from 89 games at the Azteca before this game had not featured too many of the very top teams, just as it felt significant to note Mexico’s four wins from four without conceding in this tournament had come against South Africa, South Korea, Czechia and Ecuador. England stuck to the plan. Their superior quality shone through, just.
A match that had everything
Tournament football becomes fraught and unpredictable in the knockout stages. To an extreme degree, here.
Ever since Declan Rice, one of England’s most important players, was shown a yellow card after 59 seconds, this was a match that never slept. It had everything.
The first 20 minutes are the hardest in altitude and England were careful not to run out the blocks. They allowed Mexico to come on to them and dominate, applying man-to-man pressure when needed but no press whatsoever.
It gave them a foothold in a game that then sizzled into life and never cooled off thereafter.
Declan Rice was brave in carrying the ball up the pitch and soon Bukayo Saka was crossing for Bellingham to punch a diving header home. In a matter of seconds, the Real Madrid man had another, this time from Elliot Anderson’s turnover, the tireless Anthony Gordon’s burst forward, and Kane’s cross into Bellingham to turn home.
Julian Quinones, Mexico’s star of this World Cup, hammered a fine volley into the net from a free-kick to halve the deficit and it would have been 2-2 and level at the break had Bellingham not placed a brave foot in and tackled to prevent a certain goal, his teammates bursting over and congratulating him as England stayed ahead.
Then came the interval, but soon a new hurdle for England.
Expert reaction to red card blow
Quansah’s tackle on Jesus Gallardo was a fair one, but he followed through with studs and gave the VAR team a decision to make. Quansah, 23, left the pitch in tears after his sending off. You wondered whether this might be one of those England tournament games that would go on and on.
England regrouped, Tuchel threw on John Stones — Bukayo Saka the fall guy — and within a matter of seconds Pickford had kicked long for Kane, Gordon had picked up the loose ball and been tripped by the goalkeeper. Kane’s spot-kick was emphatic; the perfect response to going a man down.
This England can still make things hard for themselves, of course, and did when Kane kicked through the foot of Brian Gutierrez. The Premier League’s most successful penalty taker in history, Raul Jimenez, converted. England had 21 minutes to hold on.
That became 32 when added time was factored in, and yet England got the job done. Djed Spence, Dan Burn and Morgan Rogers offered fresh legs. England were camped in and committed to hurling every ball clear. Jordan Pickford’s magnificent first-half save to deny Jimenez’s downward header evoked memories of Gordon Banks’s ‘save of the century’ to deny Pele’s header at the 1970 World Cup in a group game also held in Mexico. Now, though, he knew the job was to punch every cross clear.
When Stones’s tackle on Jimenez saw the ball trickle just wide of the post, England knew they were almost there. Eventually, they were: into the quarters at their hosts’ expense.
“A full-throttle match where every minute feels like the 90th minute”, England’s assistant manager Anthony Barry had called it at half time. No kidding. No slowing, either. A pulsating night of World Cup drama left the United States as the last co-hosts standing as England marched on.
