{"id":746104,"date":"2026-07-06T08:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/746104\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T08:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:20:09","slug":"mexicos-world-cup-run-ends-with-loss-to-england-at-estadio-azteca-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/746104\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico\u2019s World Cup run ends with loss to England at Estadio Azteca : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783326009_683_.jpeg\" data-template=\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/5775x3850+0+0\/resize\/{width}\/quality\/{quality}\/format\/{format}\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F22%2Fe4%2F37e1502d411b9463bf955d1147e7%2Fap26187129961199.jpg\" class=\"img\" alt=\"Mexico players react following the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Mexico and England in Mexico City, Sunday, July 5, 2026. \" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n                Mexico players react following the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Mexico and England in Mexico City, Sunday, July 5, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>                    Natacha Pisarenko\/AP<\/p>\n<p>                hide caption\n            <\/p>\n<p>            toggle caption<\/p>\n<p>        Natacha Pisarenko\/AP<\/p>\n<p>MEXICO CITY \u2014 Mexico had an enormous home-field advantage and an opportunity to make its deepest run in the World Cup, but El Tri let it slip away against heavyweight England on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p>Playing at altitude with the passionate backing of 80,824 fans at Estadio Azteca, and with a man advantage for most of the second half, Mexico scored twice but could never equalize and lost 3-2.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"imagewrap\" id=\"featuredStackSquareImageg-s1-132061\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/07\/05\/g-s1-132061\/folarin-balogun-soccer-reinstated-ban-suspended-fifa-belgium\" data-metrics-ga4=\"{&quot;category&quot;:&quot;recirculation&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:&quot;story_recirculation_click&quot;,&quot;clickType&quot;:&quot;inset box&quot;,&quot;clickUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.npr.org\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/05\\\/g-s1-132061\\\/folarin-balogun-soccer-reinstated-ban-suspended-fifa-belgium&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783326009_650_.jpeg\" data-original=\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/1728x1728+303+0\/resize\/100\/quality\/100\/format\/jpeg\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F4c%2Fef%2Fa7f898904b319cfa32e87e3d3bed%2Fap26183031138586.jpg\" data-template=\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/1728x1728+303+0\/resize\/{width}\/quality\/{quality}\/format\/{format}\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F4c%2Fef%2Fa7f898904b319cfa32e87e3d3bed%2Fap26183031138586.jpg\" data-format=\"jpeg\" class=\"img lazyOnLoad\" alt=\"United States' Folarin Balogun reacts after scoring his team's first goal during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between the United States and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara, Calif., near San Francisco, on Wednesday.\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a>         <\/p>\n<p>Mexico hadn&#8217;t conceded a goal in its first four World Cup matches but had no answer for Jude Bellingham, who scored twice in a 98-second span in the first half.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To dream and then fall like this hurts deeply, but the players should leave with their heads held high,&#8221; coach Javier Aguirre said. &#8220;They gave it their all on the pitch, but it wasn&#8217;t meant to be today. The fans had high hopes, and we couldn&#8217;t get the job done and give them another night of joy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While El Tri made a step forward from their group-stage exit in Qatar in 2022, the defeat leads a bitter taste for Mexico fans who were hoping to see their country&#8217;s first quarterfinal appearance since 1986, when it last hosted the World Cup. Mexico has been eliminated in the round of 16 eight times since then.<\/p>\n<p>Aguirre will step down after his third stint as Mexico&#8217;s coach. Rafael Marquez, a former Barcelona defender, who was Aguirre&#8217;s assistant at this World Cup, will replace him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These five matches are unforgettable. I am saying goodbye to the Estadio Azteca and leaving with great pride after so many years,&#8221; Aguirre said. &#8220;Rafa is a great kid, a valuable coach and he is going to show it. Hopefully he is going to do it better than me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It was Mexico&#8217;s third competitive loss at Azteca, which opened in 1966, after a pair of 2-1 defeats in World Cup qualifiers, to Costa Rica in 2001 and to Honduras in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am sad, we had everything to win the match. (England) did not play well, they had five shots on goal and scored three,&#8221; said Mexico fan Ramiro Caballero, a 44-year-old businessman. &#8220;It was the perfect scenario to take the next step and now we must wait for that victory.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mexico players react following the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Mexico and England in Mexico&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-746104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}