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Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez scored goals in a span of nine minutes in the first half and Mexico defeated Ecuador 2-0 on Tuesday night to break a 40-year winless drought in the knockout phase and advance to the round of 16 of the World Cup.
Quiñones opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, while Jiménez added a goal in the 31st minute for the Mexicans, who had not won a round of 16 match since defeating Bulgaria in the round of 16 when they hosted the tournament in 1986.
Subsequently, Mexico lost seven consecutive times in that same period from 1994 to 2018.
In Qatar 2022 they were eliminated in the group stage for the first time since Argentina in 1978.
It was Quiñones’ third goal of the tournament and he is now El Tri’s second-best scorer in World Cup history behind Luis “Matador” Hernández and Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, who scored four each.
Jiménez scored his second goal of the tournament and has 47 with the national team to break the tie with Jared Borgetti. He is five away from equaling “Chicharito” Hernández as Mexico’s all-time top scorer.
Mexico will play another home match on Sunday against the winner of Wednesday’s match between England and Congo.
Playing at the iconic Azteca Stadium, the Mexican team has an undefeated record in 10 World Cup matches. Mexico has only two official defeats at that venue; the last was a World Cup qualifying loss to Honduras on September 6, 2013.
With the victory, Mexico extended its unbeaten streak to 12 matches, dating back to a friendly loss against Paraguay in November.
Mexico also became the first CONCACAF team to eliminate a CONMEBOL team in a World Cup knockout match. The South American teams won the previous five meetings.
Ecuador sought to advance to the round of 16 for the second time in its history and the first since Germany 2006.
The game started an hour later than scheduled due to a storm.
It was the second game of the tournament affected by weather. A storm during the France-Iraq game in Philadelphia on June 22 led to a 2 hour and 11 minute suspension at the end of the first half.
Associated Press information.
