Mexico players celebrate after Raul Jiménez’s 31st-minute goal in their 2-0 World Cup win over Ecuador.
(Jam Media via Getty Images)
Mexico will play one more World Cup game in Mexico City.
El Tri advanced to the Round of 16 thanks to a dominant first half in a 2-0 win over Ecuador. Both goals came in the first 45 minutes as Ecuador allowed two goals in a game for the first time in two years.
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The first came on a break as Julián Quiñones buried a shot in the top left corner in the 22nd minute.
The second goal for Mexico came less than 10 minutes later after a poor Ecuador turnover in its own half. Striker Raul Jiménez pounced on an errant pass, got the ball to Quiñones, who sent it back to Jiménez in open space in the penalty area.
The goal made Jiménez, 35, the first player in his 30s to score a knockout-round goal for Mexico as the country won a knockout-round game for the first time in 40 years.
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Quiñones’ strike was his third of the tournament as he’s having a breakout World Cup. After scoring just twice in 22 prior appearances for Mexico, Quiñones is on the periphery of the Golden Boot race, though Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé are now tied on six goals after Mbappé’s brace earlier in the day against Sweden.
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Mexico coach Javier Aguirre later praised the forward’s willingness to sacrifice for the team, saying he “understands the game very well” and revealing he came off with calf tightness after “running back and forth many times.”
That first goal was incredibly well-deserved. Mexico immediately applied pressure to Ecuador after the opening kickoff as Ecuador struggled to get the ball out of its own half. The best player of the opening minutes was Mexican midfielder Gilberto Mora. The 17-year-old became the youngest player to start a knockout-round game at the World Cup since Pelé was 20 days younger than Mora’s 17 years and 259 days at the 1958 World Cup.
The victory sends Mexico into the Round of 16, where it will face England at Estadio Azteca on July 5 unless DR Congo pulls off a stunning upset on Wednesday.
England will probably be the favorite if it advances, but the home-field advantage that Mexico will have cannot be discounted. Mexico, which has played all four of its games on home soil so far, joined France as the only team to win all four of its games at the World Cup so far.
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For Aguirre, the win carried added significance. He said he was “one of those” Mexicans who had never reached the fifth match, referencing painful World Cup exits as both a player and coach.
“Giving my people this joy is the best thing that could happen to me,” Aguirre said.
Ecuador allowed just five goals across 18 games of World Cup qualifying in South America. But its defense didn’t come close to resembling that form in the first half. Mexico had Ecuador pinned back from the start, and the turnover — and subsequent space provided to Jiménez for the goal — was especially poor.
John Yeboah provided two good chances for Ecuador in the first half, but the second half couldn’t produce any semblance of a comeback, even as Mexico was content to let Ecuador have the ball and quickly counter when needed. Just minutes from the end of the game, defender Piero Hincapié was given an automatic red card for covering his mouth to say something to Mexico’s Santiago Giménez.
