England emerge from Mexico ordeal looking every inch World Cup contenders

If England are to win the World Cup, they may look back on Sunday night at the Azteca Stadium as the moment they proved it was possible.

Fuelled by two goals from Jude Bellingham and a captain’s penalty from Harry Kane, England emerged from one of the fiercest examinations the tournament has to offer with a stirring ten-man 3-2 victory over co-hosts Mexico.

They overcame the altitude, silenced a crowd that seemed to shake the stadium’s concrete foundations, and ended Mexico’s aura of invincibility at a fortress where defeats have been almost unheard of for decades.

And when the game descended into chaos, they found another way to win.

Reduced to 10 men with the Azteca crowd sensing blood, England were forced into a desperate rearguard action. Mexico attacked in waves, laying siege to the England goal.

Dug in

But every player in white dug in, chased, blocked and battled for their lives.

Bellingham was the symbol of England’s grit. Already the architect of victory with two goals, he lunged to clear what seemed a certain Mexican goal off the line, late in the first half.

Kane supplied the composure from the penalty spot. Declan Rice walked a disciplinary tightrope for most of the match on a yellow card, while goalkeeper Jordan Pickford delivered one of the finest performances of his England career, producing a series of outstanding saves.

“I can’t put it into words right now ... the goals, the penalty against, the penalty for, the red card,” Bellingham said. “It was a chaotic game.

“It felt like a full squad performance. It felt like we had 26 players. Every time we cleared the ball, when big Dan Burn [a late substitute], smashed his head off one and cleared it up the pitch, you could see all the subs on the sideline up, all the staff, the fans got behind us in the stadium.”

The scale of the challenge should not be underestimated.

High-altitude test

Winning a World Cup knockout match against a Mexico side who had won all four of their games without conceding a goal was daunting enough. Doing it a lung-busting 2,200m above sea level, against a team backed by one of the most intimidating crowds in football, made the task exponentially harder.

Since opening in 1966, the Azteca had witnessed only two Mexican defeats in 89 senior competitive internationals.

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Opponents have long wilted under the weight of history, noise and expectation but England did not. They became the first team to hand Mexico a World Cup defeat at the Azteca, surviving 11 agonising minutes of stoppage time that would have broken many lesser sides.

By the final whistle, this felt like more than a place in the quarterfinals. It felt like the kind of victory that convinces a team they can win the whole thing.

“It’s what I always tell you, this team ... they really mean it. When the going gets tough, they never give up, they never lose belief,” England manager Thomas Tuchel said. “It was one step more.”

When the 100-plus minutes of intensity, anxiety and survival were finally over, England supporters, who had been drowned out for long stretches by the sea of red and green, crowded down near the pitch to belt out Oasis’s “Wonderwall” with the England players who stood arm-in-arm.

The song turned the stadium that had been overwhelmingly Mexican into a celebration of English defiance.

England next face Norway in the quarterfinals in Miami on Saturday.

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“Norway,” pondered Tuchel. “We need to take this in. This is Azteca, it’s Mexico. It’s a crazy, crazy game. We left everything out there, every single one of us. So, they need to take this in and now it’s full steam ahead.”

Norway stun Brazil

Norway coach Ståle Solbakken paid tribute to his squad after an energy-sapping, nerve-jangling 2-1 win over Brazil on Sunday that sent them into the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time. They will face England at Miami Stadium in Florida on Saturday, 11 July.

Norway’s rowing celebration has become ubiquitous during the tournament, but they had to navigate shark-infested waters against the Brazilians, as well as survive a late penalty from Neymar deep into stoppage time that could have capsized them.

“This is a great group, they love being together, they train well, they help each other and protect each other. We have a strong culture and we give the opportunity to let people to be themselves and say whatever they want, and that’s a very important part of the whole thing, when things go well and when things go not so well,” Solbakken told reporters.

Haaland struck both goals in a sensational 2-1 win to dump the Brazilians out of the tournament, and the selfless running of every player in red, and the outstanding goalkeeping of out-of-contract Orjan Nyland, set the scene for Norway’s greatest win in football.

With the job done, the fans and team did their rowing celebration, echoing the scenes of joy back home as tens of thousands of fans flooded the streets to celebrate.

“I think that the whole nation is rowing together, and with that, I mean that we are having a great party here and in Oslo, and in all the other big and small cities all the way through Norway,” Solbakken said.

“The rowing is in a way a symbol of that, and that we are all together. So I think it’s great days, it’s a great summer to be a fan – I think it’s better to be a fan than a coach,” he grinned. Reuters/DM