Mexico has advanced to the World Cup round of 16, breaking a 40-year streak without a knockout stage win by defeating Ecuador 2-0 on Tuesday night. Julian Quiñones opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, and Raúl Jiménez added a second goal nine minutes later.
The victory marks Mexico's first knockout stage win since they hosted the tournament in 1986, when they defeated Bulgaria. Prior to this match, Mexico had lost seven consecutive knockout stage games between 1994 and 2018. In the 2022 Qatar World Cup, the team was eliminated in the group stage for the first time since 1978.
Quiñones' goal was his third of the tournament, positioning him as Mexico's second-highest scorer in World Cup history, trailing Luis "Matador" Hernández and Javier "Chicharito" Hernández, who each scored four. Jiménez's goal was his second of this World Cup and his 47th for the national team, surpassing Jared Borgetti and putting him within five goals of "Chicharito" Hernández's all-time scoring record for Mexico.
Mexico will face the winner of the upcoming match between England and Congo on Sunday. The team boasts an undefeated record across 10 World Cup matches at the Azteca Stadium, with only two official losses at the venue, the last occurring in a World Cup qualifying match against Honduras in September 2013. This win extends Mexico's current unbeaten run to 12 games, a streak that began after a friendly loss to Paraguay in November.
This result also makes Mexico the first CONCACAF team to eliminate a CONMEBOL team in a World Cup knockout match, as South American teams had won the previous five such encounters. Ecuador had been seeking to reach the round of 16 for only the second time in their history, their previous appearance being in 2006.
The match's start was delayed by one hour due to a thunderstorm. This was the second match of the tournament affected by weather; a storm during the France-Iraq game on June 22 caused a suspension of over two hours.