England is through to the quarterfinals after a 3-2 win over Mexico in what was likely the hardest-fought game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, thus far. After dealing with a wave of Mexican chances in the first 30 minutes, England responded with two goals against the run of play from Jude Bellingham, and the Three Lions found themselves clinging to a 2-1 lead at halftime.<\/p>\n
The second half was filled with drama. Jarell Quansah was sent off in the 54th minute for a studs-up tackle. Despite playing with 10 men, England was able to strike again when Anthony Gordon drew a penalty, which was converted by Harry Kane. Mexico then responded with a penalty of their own after Kane was called for a foul in the box.<\/p>\n
From there, it was the big story of the game when England was able to defend its way to victory with a compact defense that sat deep and flawlessly handled everything that came its way.<\/p>\n
(Photo by Francois Nel\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n In the opening half, Mexico began the game on the front foot, playing great soccer, and just as it seemed as if “El Tri” was going to be the team to eventually find a breakthrough, it was England that surprisingly scored twice against the run of play.<\/p>\n This was done with Bellingham making trailing runs into the box to get on the end of balls delivered from the right wing by Bukayo Saka and the second was from Harry Kane, who collected the ball out wide and hit Bellingham, making a late run for a goal.<\/p>\n These were massively important psychological moments for England as it became the first time Mexico had conceded goals at this World Cup. Mexico, which had not lost a competitive game at this stadium since 2012, was clearly rattled.<\/p>\n This was by far the best Bellingham had looked at the World Cup, and it was not just his goal scoring. Mexico responded well at the end of the first half and cut the lead to one through Juli\u00e1n Qui\u00f1ones. But Mexico nearly equalized shortly after when a corner was flicked on, and it found a wide-open C\u00e9sar Montes at the far post. Bellingham then came out of nowhere to poke it away and ensure that England had the lead at halftime.<\/p>\n Then, at the start of the second half and right up to the red card to Jarell Quansah in the 54th minute, Bellingham was putting on a show in Mexico City.<\/p>\n But his most important moments might have been in the final 15 minutes and 11 minutes of stoppage time when he was defending, winning duels, making tackles, and constantly clearing the ball from danger.<\/p>\n His stats were eye-opening. He only completed nine passes, but he won 9\/15 of his ground duels, had four clearances, and three tackles. His aggression with his dribbles demanded a lot of respect from Mexican defenders. Bellingham covered so much ground in the second half, which was not easy in the very high altitude of Mexico City. But he was the biggest difference maker.<\/p>\n Bellingham was not the only player who had a great performance. Winger Anthony Gordon was also instrumental in big moments that tilted the game in England\u2019s favor. He was highly effective with his dribble and drew four fouls, one of which was a penalty.<\/p>\n (Photo by AJ Johnson\/ISI Photos\/ISI Photos via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n In the 75th minute, with the score 3-2, England manager Thomas Tuchel made the decision that his team was done with attacking with 10 men. He subbed defenders Djed Spence and Daniel Burn into the game to try to defend its way to victory from that point.<\/p>\n The last 15 minutes plus 11 minutes of stoppage time was tremendous defending from the Three Lions. In the 90th minute, Harry Kane was subbed out, and from there, it was almost always 10 English players behind the ball.<\/p>\n English goalkeeper Jordan Pickford had an incredible game. In the first half, he made two world-class saves against Raul Jim\u00e9nez, and then in the second half, Pickford was instrumental coming out of his box, claiming clearances, or punching balls away.<\/p>\n England\u2019s size advantage paid huge dividends in stoppage time as Mexico was sending ball after ball into the box, but England always had the answer. Mexico had 49 crosses in this game, and England had no margin for error. Fortunately for Tuchel, his team was perfect down the stretch.<\/p>\n (Photo by CARL DE SOUZA \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY England is through to the quarterfinals after a 3-2 win over Mexico in what was likely the hardest-fought game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, thus far. After dealing with a wave of Mexican chances in the first 30 minutes, England responded with two goals against the run of play from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}