Mexico head into the round of 16 riding a four-game winning streak without giving up a single goal. Their opponent is England. The matchup brings together two sides with very different paths to this stage of the 2026 World Cup, which is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
According to BBC Sport, Mexico's coach Javier Aguirre says the home support has been "a driving force" behind the team's run in the tournament. The 67-year-old is in his third spell in charge of El Tri and has restored what the report describes as competitiveness and team harmony. Aguirre typically favors defensive organization, deploying a narrow front three with full-backs providing width when the team attacks.
Mexico were quarter-finalists the last two times they hosted the World Cup, in 1970 and 1986, and are now one win away from reaching the same stage again.
The co-hosts carry several structural advantages into this match. They are playing at altitude, where thinner air can drain opponents' energy over the course of 90 minutes. They also benefit from additional recovery time and an intensely partisan home crowd. England will need to manage those conditions while trying to disrupt Mexico's defensive structure.
Mexico have scored eight goals at this World Cup, though BBC Sport notes they have done so largely against limited opposition and have often struggled to find attacking fluency under Aguirre. If England can cut off passing lanes and disrupt the home side's usual patterns, Mexico may find themselves short on attacking options.
The player drawing the most attention heading into the knockout stage is 17-year-old Gilberto Mora, a creative midfielder from Tijuana. He is the youngest player in Mexico's World Cup history and the youngest player from any nation to start a knockout game since Pele did so for Brazil in 1958.
Raul Jimenez, 35, is the team's most experienced attacking threat. He had failed to score at each of the past three World Cups but has managed two goals in this tournament. Jimenez scored the equalizer in Mexico's 2-1 Gold Cup final win over the United States last year and has agreed to return to Wolverhampton Wanderers from Fulham this summer. Center-back Cesar Montes, 29, is a dominant physical presence at 6 feet 3 inches. He scored three times at last year's Gold Cup and joined Lokomotiv Moscow in 2024 after a spell in Spanish football.
England will need answers for all of it when the two sides meet in the last 16.
