1 hour ago
2
England doesn’t do easy. If there’s a way to make a football match more stressful than it needs to be, the Three Lions will find it. So a 3-2 win over Mexico at altitude, in Mexico City, at the Azteca Stadium, on July 5, 2026, feels about right.
Wayne Rooney, who knows a thing or two about England World Cup campaigns, called it one of the greatest performances in the country’s tournament history.
What Rooney actually said, and why it landed
Rooney, now a pundit for the BBC, was effusive after the final whistle. He singled out the team’s attitude, grit, and desire as defining qualities of the performance, not just the goals or the tactics.
He also gave particular credit to Declan Rice, the Arsenal midfielder who reportedly came into the match carrying fitness concerns. For a player under that kind of physical scrutiny to deliver a standout performance at altitude, in a knockout game, is the sort of thing that cements reputations.
The Azteca, for context, sits at roughly 2,200 meters above sea level. That altitude isn’t just a scenic detail. It affects breathing, recovery between sprints, and stamina over 90-plus minutes.
A win that carries historical weight
This 2026 campaign, under manager Thomas Tuchel, has been building differently. The team has shown momentum through the group stage and carried it into the knockout rounds. A 3-2 win over the host nation, in their own iconic stadium, in the round of 16, is not a small thing.
The 2026 tournament is itself a historic one. FIFA expanded the format to 48 teams for the first time, meaning more matches, more upsets, and a longer road to the final.
Tuchel’s influence here is worth watching. A manager with his level of experience at elite club level, having won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021, understands how to manage the psychological weight of momentum inside a tournament bubble.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
English (US) · 