Ten-man England beat Mexico 3-2. Can they beat Norway inside ninety minutes?
England beat Mexico, the co-hosts, 3-2 at the Estadio Azteca after a storm delay. England played with ten men from the 54th minute.
What happened
England beat Mexico 3-2 at the Estadio Azteca despite playing from the 54th minute with ten men, setting up a quarter-final against Norway in Miami.
Thunderstorms over Mexico City delayed the last-16 game by an hour. Jude Bellingham scored twice in 98 seconds in the first half, and Julián Quiñones then scored for Mexico, the co-hosts. In the 54th minute Jarell Quansah was sent off after a video review (VAR) by referee Alireza Faghani.
With ten men, England kept attacking. Harry Kane scored a penalty for 3-1, his sixth goal of the tournament. Raúl Jiménez replied from the spot for Mexico, and England survived a frantic finish.
Thomas Tuchel called it a heroic performance. He also criticised the referees, and asked whether Mexico’s penalty was a clear enough mistake for the video referee to step in.
Mexico are the second of the three co-hosts to go out. England will play the quarter-final without Quansah, who is suspended. Their last World Cup quarter-final was the defeat to France in 2022, and for three decades this round is where England have gone out again and again.
Sources: Sky Sports (2), Al Jazeera
The Pattern
Since 1990 England have played five World Cup quarter-finals. They won two. Only the 2018 game against Sweden was won inside ninety minutes. The 1990 win over Cameroon needed extra time and two Gary Lineker penalties, and the other three ended in defeat, one of them on penalties.
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The Read
History points against a win inside ninety minutes. Four of England’s last five quarter-finals went past ninety minutes or were lost within them. The two England won were against Sweden and Cameroon, and neither had one of the tournament’s top scorers, as Norway do. Quansah’s ban removes a first-choice defender for this game, and teams that give everything in a five-goal game at 2,200 metres have often paid for it six days later.
England’s form is the reason to doubt that. They have just won a hostile knockout game away, at altitude, with ten men. Bellingham is the best player at the tournament on form, and Kane is one goal behind the top scorer. Norway, for all of Haaland’s threat, have won fewer trophies than any other team left in England’s half of the draw. Our market gives England 29 per cent to reach the final, which may be too low for their squad and their route.
The score after ninety minutes in Miami on settles it. A close, long night is what England’s record suggests.
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