They were held up by an electric storm but, after it had cleared, Mexico simply kept the lightning bolts coming. El Tri have broken a hex that had gnawed at the nation’s football psyche for years, winning a World Cup knockout game for the first time since 1986, and the head turner will be the manner in which it happened. Javier Aguirre’s players cut Ecuador apart in a stunning first-half performance that rocked a pulsating Estadio Azteca to its foundations and laid a marker for the round of 16. Thudding finishes from Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez sent them clear and they could manage their way through the remainder, resting legs for their next assignment here on Sunday.
Their likely opponents? England, even if one must not discount the Democratic Republic of the Congo making a statement about that. Whoever travels here next must deal with an atmosphere that, for all this tournament’s self-imposed sterility, sets the hairs on end. They must also find a way to cope with the 17-year-old wunderkind Gilberto Mora, whose performance on a night of such pressure defied belief.
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