England are through to the World Cup quarter-finals after earning one of their greatest knockout results by eliminating co-hosts Mexico with a gutsy 3-2 victory in an extraordinary tie at the Azteca.
Thomas Tuchel’s side overcame Mexico’s significant home advantage at altitude, shrugged off a one-hour kick-off delay and survived the majority of the second half with 10 men after Jarell Quansah was sent off, digging in heroically following Jude Bellingham’s double and Harry Kane’s penalty to set up a last-eight meeting with Norway.
Mexico hadn’t conceded a goal at the tournament until Bellingham struck twice in the space of 98 seconds during the first half to put England in dreamland, quieting the daunting Azteca, only for Julian Quinones to pull one back before half-time from a soft free-kick.
England survived a late onslaught in the opening period and steadied themselves after the break as Nico O’Reilly struck a post, but then Quansah, at right-back, recklessly slid in and was shown a straight red card in the 54th minute by referee Alireza Faghani following a VAR check.
Faghani was at the centre of a dramatic second half, awarding England a stonewall penalty minutes later when the excellent Anthony Gordon was brought down by the goalkeeper and Kane held his nerve to net his sixth goal of the tournament.
But Faghani was then involved again, pointing to the spot for a Mexico penalty, after being sent to the monitor by VAR, for Kane’s kick on Brian Gutierrez which allowed Jimenez to beat Jordan Pickford and set up a grandstand finish in the final 20 minutes.
Tuchel switched to a back five, throwing on Dan Burn and Djed Spence in an attempt to see out the tie and the defence did, blocking shots and heading clear seemingly endless crosses in an incredible finale of a World Cup classic.
