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The boy who has it all has ambitions to play James Bond but for the time being he is more reminiscent of Novak DjokovicThere has never been an English footballer quite like Jude Bellingham. He has the cockiness and explosiveness of a teenage Wayne Rooney and the vision of Paul Scholes, but that doesn’t come close to covering it. There are endless layers to Bellingham, the boy who has it all. He can be the No 8, the No 9 or the No 10. He has the flair of a Glenn Hoddle and the chest-out bravado of Paul Gascogine, but he also has the bravery of Bryan Robson, the rampaging qualities of Steven Gerrard and, as Mexico discovered at the Estadio Azteca, the ability to morph into the world’s best defender and drag his team out of the mire with a goal-saving challenge.More? Bellingham has film-star looks, can charm like David Beckham and, given how much he has achieved, does not sound ridiculous when he says his post-retirement ambition is to play James Bond.The 23-year-old’s world is bigger than most of us can begin to understand. He made his debut for Birmingham City when he was 16 and was so good they retired his shirt number. He was outstanding on his tournament debut for England, scoring against Iran at the last World Cup. He is a European champion with Real Madrid and, because of his precociousness as a teenager, can leave you thinking he is wise beyond his years.Perhaps that has made us expect too much from him. There are times during games when he can infuriate his fans. He flew out of the traps at Euro 2024, thundering in a header when England beat Serbia in their opening game, but consistency eluded him. The big moment, the “Who else?” overhead kick against Slovakia, came at the end of an otherwise poor performance from Bellingham, who often struggled to hide his frustration on the pitch and sometimes appeared not to be on the same wavelength as the team’s other big players.But Bellingham was 20 at the start of that tournament – his birthday is 29 June. He was a kid, albeit one with the world at his feet. The problem, if that is the right word, is that from the outside there appeared to be contradictions to his character. Here was a megastar who oozed intelligence in interviews with English broadcasters after Madrid’s Champions League games. He was insightful, engaging and capable of razor-sharp tactical analysis, and yet he also remained slightly unknowable. Bellingham is distant from mainstream written media, has spent much of his career outside England and came across as an unsympathetic figure at Euro 2024 whenever he tried too hard to be the hero or wasted energy on arguing with referees.It turned into something of a PR crisis, fuelled by Thomas Tuchel’s infamous “repulsive” comment last year. Perhaps some of us misunderstood Bellingham’s personality. For a while I worried there was a risk of him holding England back. Looking back, I misjudged Bellingham. Although it is true that Tuchel wanted to establish a hierarchy that had Harry Kane and Declan Rice as the leaders of England’s dressing room, it was a mistake to think it would be productive to attempt to change Bellingham’s nature.The point is that ego is part of what makes him different and special. It does not, however, come close to making him a bad person or a bad teammate. It is not only Jordan Henderson who says Bellingham is a great kid. There are plenty of stories about him from people with no skin in the game who say how brilliant he is when he meets an awestruck young fan.But there are times when you see Bellingham struggle to contain that enormous will to win. He has been inspirational at this World Cup, scoring four goals in five games, but he almost boiled over when England were 1-0 down to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last 32. Bellingham does not really do stoicism. Part of the fascination is the nuance. Here we have a massive patriot who somehow manages to come across as quite un-English in how much he wants to win, how much adversity fires him up and how much he wants you to know that he really is the main character.That Djokovic streak was evident in the way Bellingham relished walking into the Azteca bearpit when England faced Mexico in the last 16 on Sunday. He ran to the corner and stood with arms outstretched after scoring the first of his two goals. He wanted the crowd’s animosity because it brought out the best in him. This was pure aura; this was Bellingham letting everyone know there was no way he was losing this game.Bellingham was immense on and off the ball against Mexico. During his rise there have been echoes of the tennis prodigy to him; the young star competing in an individual sport and forced to deal with the pressure of doing it alone. For England, the challenge has been harnessing that tendency to be a soloist, the yearning to be the match-winner, and make it an effective weapon in a team game. Tuchel has found the way forward. After a testy start to their relationship, he has given Bellingham clarity. He has understood this is a rare talent. He has his No 10.How ridiculous the pre-tournament notion that Bellingham could possibly not be a starter looks now. He has been in storming form since the first game, when he sparked the surge against Croatia with a spectacular solo goal at the start of the second half, and was in all-action mode against Mexico.There were the goals – the timing of the run to head in the first from a Bukayo Saka cross, the silky one-two with Kane for the second – but there was also the defiance. There was the heroic clearance to stop César Montes from equalising on the stroke of half-time. There were moments of outrageous skill and plenty of lung-busting runs as England held out with 10 men.This is no soloist. Bellingham does it all for the team. He has made vital interventions on multiple occasions – there were crucial last-ditch challenges against Croatia and Ghana – and has been a galvanising force, summed up by him giving Djed Spence a pep talk after the maligned full-back’s impressive cameo against Mexico.We are watching Bellingham become one of England’s leaders. He is still maturing and will not get everything right. There was a hilarious moment when Bellingham lost possession against Mexico and reacted like a toddler, repeatedly hitting the turf in exaggerated fashion, but that was because he thought he was on his way to scoring another stunner. It is part of the package. There is nobody quite as captivating wearing an England shirt. Expect another absorbing show against Norway on Saturday.

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Celeste Amarilla called striker a ‘colonised Cameroonian’French Football Federation to file criminal chargesThe France striker Kylian Mbappé has hit back at a Paraguayan senator, describing her ⁠as a “despicable woman” after she launched a racist attack on him. Mbappé’s ⁠penalty proved ​the difference in an ill-tempered match as France beat Paraguay 1-0 in Philadelphia on Saturday to advance ⁠to the quarter-finals.Celeste Amarilla wrote a long racist tirade on X, describing Mbappé as a “colonised Cameroonian, desperately trying to ⁠pass himself off as French,” and as a “brute who had not learned to ​write”. Paraguay’s players should have ‌slapped him after the ‌match, she added.Mbappé, the France captain, responded with a strongly worded statement defending ‌not only himself but also the Paraguay players. “Madame Celeste Amarilla, you are a despicable woman and unworthy of your position. You do not represent Paraguay, that country which has sweated passion and honour throughout the competition,” he wrote.“Through your recklessness and your brazen racism, the entire world ‌has already forgotten the journey and the historic effort that your players accomplished during this World Cup, making way for ​an incompetent woman who gives the worst possible image of her country. I will never allow people like her the freedom to spread their hatred and racism across the world.“The French Football Federation (FFF) escalated the matter, announcing plans to file ⁠criminal charges, describing her remarks as “utterly abhorrent and unacceptable”.A statement said: “These remarks ​are criminal and reprehensible. ​They must be prosecuted here ​as elsewhere. The FFF is reporting the matter to the ​public prosecutor’s office ‌with a ​view to legal ​proceedings. These remarks bring shame upon those who make them and those who disseminate them. The players of the French national team represent France; it is our country that is being insulted.”

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Despite ‘a setback that will hurt for eternity’, co-hosts exit with heads held high after bringing pride, passion and soulusic pulsated from some of the bars on Monday morning on Calle Genova, a narrow thoroughfare in Mexico City’s heart that rarely lives in silence. The clock was yet to strike 11am, but, spilling out on to the street, a healthy crowd of patrons were picking up where they had left off. Perhaps they had never stopped at all. National team shirts were on full display and, had anyone lived under a news blackout for 15 hours, they may have drawn a wildly different conclusion about the previous night’s events.The truth was more evident to anyone who, upon returning from Estadio Azteca, made a beeline for Paseo de la Reforma. Long after Mexico’s last-16 victory over Ecuador this vast boulevard had been teeming, an affirmative national moment bringing 1.4 million people on to the streets. But it was virtually empty three and a half hours after England had shattered the dreams of El Tri, the clean-up operation from the evening’s mass screening already in full swing and remaining revellers confined to the sidestreets.Nonetheless, Mexico’s pain was mixed with smiles. The revelry did continue more modestly away from those quiet major arteries and reflections were largely upbeat. There was universal acknowledgment Mexico had wrung everything they could from a genuine World Cup classic; a bittersweet sense the team played well enough to earn more and might have done if Jordan Pickford had not been in sensational form for England.“A setback that will hurt for eternity,” wrote El Universal, one of Mexico’s biggest newspapers, paying tribute to “an epic performance against England”. The feeling lingered that Mexico had been architects of their own heroic downfall, particularly through the weak defending that allowed Anthony Gordon to win the penalty that effectively put the tie beyond them.The country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, sought to maintain the positive afterglow. “We showed everyone that Mexico is the best host in the world, with happy and united people,” she wrote on social media.It is a little more complicated than that given the kidnapping crisis, cartel violence and other social problems that bombastic sporting events reliably gloss over. But the first part of Sheinbaum’s statement certainly chimed with the sentiments of England’s fans, who reported being bowled over by their hosts’ warmth and graciousness in defeat.While Estadio Azteca more than justified the mythology that surrounds it by generating a fevered, crackling atmosphere on Sunday night there was no sense of genuine hostility towards their guests. Half-hearted chants of Puta towards a group of journalists entering the ground were as visible as any animosity became. Fans of both persuasions mingled on the concourses and in those bars off Paseo de la Reforma, the songs and group photos continued into the night.Just as that was a wrap for a slick but ultimately limited side, the final whistle called time on Mexico’s co-hosting of this tournament. If the huge share occupied by the USA constitutes the 2026 World Cup’s heart, Mexico has been its soul. Football matters here; it is engrained in society and not simply an entertainment accessory. It should be no denigration of the mostly successful American efforts to foster a pleasant experience for guests if, simultaneously, a stint in Mexico during the knockout stages felt invigorating for the spirit.Yet the Azteca will sit unused for the rest of the summer; so will the stadiums in Guadalajara and Monterrey, the latter a jaw-dropping location. The Azteca lacks the sheen and five-star accoutrements of its peers, but is all the more enchanting for that.Problems with access and surrounding infrastructure were largely ironed out as the tournament progressed so there was no reason this monument to football could not have outlasted its national team. Perhaps, to the enthralled long-haul visitor, less is more. There can be value in scarcity. But would it have hurt to give Mexico a stake in proceedings for at least one more week?There will be hope that the added visibility for Mexico’s players acts as a springboard. Nobody who watched the 17-year-old Gilberto Mora, who more than held his own against England and ran rings around Ecuador, believed they were witnessing anything but the birth of a star.Mexico sneaks below the radar because its league, which pays well and draws sizable crowds, offers a comfortable home for its talents. Players who do seek moves can be priced out by clubs that do not urgently need the money. Added mobility and exposure in Europe’s top divisions would help this football hotbed of 133 million realise its gargantuan potential.

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Carlo Ancelotti and his players have been lambasted for their ‘shameful’ and ‘embarrassing’ World Cup exitThe wait for the hexa – the record-extending sixth World Cup – continues. Brazil’s 2-1 defeat to Norway in the last-16 of the World Cup means they have now gone six tournaments in a row without being crowned champions. Some in Brazil are calling it the reverse hexa.As you would expect, the reaction back home has been scathing. Neto, the former Brazil player who is now a pundit on Radio Bandeirantes, laid into the current crop of players. “It’s a generation that won fuck all,” he said. “There are six players who won one Copa América and that’s it. It was embarrassing from the beginning and everything that happened before that game. It was a shameful campaign and these guys are losers. It’s a generation of lies.”Carlo Ancelotti, who was praised for his interventions during Brazil’s 2-1 win against Japan in the last-32 stage, has not been spared. Cahê Mota, writing in Globoesporte, said the manager’s substitutions against Norway only made the team worse: “The Seleção are out of the World Cup and Ancelotti’s plan failed. Brazil bet on a booby-trap game: they gave the ball to Norway and bet on a transition at speed. It worked very little. The penalty missed by Bruno Guimarães would have given the game a different shape, but the Seleção bet big on a style that does not match its tradition and they did not know how to be lethal when they had chances. You can’t even regret it. You can’t say there was injustice. You can’t even say the defeat happened but we played like Brazil.”Brazil had just 34% possession against Norway, their lowest in a World Cup match since records began in 1966. Such a statistic is an embarrassment in the eyes of Mauro Cezar Pereira. “It’s shameful to see a Brazil team, which for years has relied on marketing ploys like ‘joga bonito’, having a strategy to give the ball to the opponent and only play in transition,” says Pereira, one of the country’s leading pundits. He believes that this “cowardly” style will “never” be acceptable to Brazilians, adding: “The poor quality of Carlo Ancelotti’s work is embarrassing.”There have been calls for Ancelotti to be sacked, with the country’s football association also taking flak for giving him a new four-year contract a few months before the tournament began. The manager’s handling of Neymar has divided fans. Neymar’s admirers believe that, had he started the match, he would have converted Brazil’s penalty in the first half and altered the course of the tie. His detractors, however, are convinced that introducing the country’s all-time record goalscorer was the change that cost Ancelotti the most.Neymar moved into the centre of the attack, pushing Vinícius Júnior and Endrick out wide. “That’s what decided the game,” says Mauro. “From the moment he entered, Norway had even more possession. They attacked more and built plays until they scored goals. With Neymar, Endrick and Vinícius, Brazil became even weaker in combat, in the fight for possession, and were definitely subjugated by the Norwegians. Suicide.”Neymar won his first cap in New Jersey in 2010 in a friendly against the USA. Now, 130 caps and 80 goals later, he has retired from international football. “I tried,” he said after the match. “It started here at MetLife Stadium and I finished here. It is now over.”Many in Brazil would like to see a full reset, with Neymar, Casemiro and his generation moving aside. The more optimistic fans want the country to produce midfielders and full-backs like they did in the old days. The immediate priority is the Copa América in two years’ time, which is also likely to be held in the US. If Ancelotti fares as badly at that tournament as he has done at this World Cup, do not expect him to see out his £8.5m-a-year deal.

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European governing body’s dramatic move could have major implications for the future of the sportPerhaps the only globally renowned figure who has been more conspicuous by his absence at this World Cup tournament than Donald Trump is the Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, although both men have more than made up for their silence over the past 24 hours.By endorsing a statement in which Uefa accused Fifa of crossing “a red line” in making the “incomprehensible and unjustifiable” decision to lift the USA striker Folarin Balogun’s suspension for the last-16 tie with Belgium on Monday, Ceferin has effectively put European football on a war footing with the world governing body, a dramatic move that could have major implications for the future of the sport.Much like Trump, and indeed Gianni Infantino, Ceferin is a hands‑on president and avid consumer of football media, so he will have known exactly what his organisation was doing. The latter pair have been at loggerheads since Infantino proposed the creation of an expanded Club World Cup in 2018, which finally came to pass in the US last year, with much of the current tension between Fifa and Uefa based on the former’s desire to expand the Club World Cup from 32 to 48 teams for the next staging of the tournament in 2029.With Uefa making almost €5bn (£4.27bn) from the Champions League each year, a figure set to rise by about 20% from next year based on media rights and commercial packages sold to date, Fifa wants a piece of the club action, given the vast majority of its four‑year revenues of $14bn (£10.5bn) comes from the World Cup.The most recent public sign of enmity between Uefa and Fifa came in Paraguay in May 2025 when European delegates – including Ceferin and the Football Association chair, Debbie Hewitt – walked out of the Fifa congress in protest at the late arrival of Infantino, who had been attending a summit in the Middle East with world leaders including Trump and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Since that symbolic show of defiance there had been something of a truce, however, which insiders have attributed to the fact that both Infantino and Ceferin will be seeking re-election next year, and have agreed to keep infighting to a minimum.While Uefa has attempted to score some political points on the back of Fifa’s unpopular running of this World Cup – announcing low ticket prices for Euro 2028, making clear it will not introduce hydration breaks and appointing the Somali referee Omar Artan to take charge of the Uefa Super Cup after he was prevented from officiating at the World Cup by the US Department of Homeland Security – the detente has just about held. But the fragile peace was shattered by Fifa’s decision to lift Balogun’s ban in the middle of the tournament, which Uefa said undermined “the integrity of the game” and “the credibility of the competition”.While much of this dispute is personal and political, there is also genuine disbelief at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon at how the Fifa administration appears to be run. For all the many criticisms of Uefa, it is an intensely process‑driven, bureaucratic organisation, while in using article 27 of its disciplinary code as a get-out to clear Balogun and Cristiano Ronaldo last year, Fifa gives the impression of making policy on the hoof.After issuing their condemnatory statement on Monday morning, Uefa officials were locked in crisis talks for much of the day, with another indication of the ill-feeling towards Fifa shown in the fact that so few have travelled to the World Cup. Despite sharing a tendency to globe-trot and their mutual self-interest, Ceferin and Infantino are rarely seen in the same place at the same time. Following the controversy in Paraguay last year, Ceferin did not attend the Fifa congress in Vancouver this year, while Infantino made his brief appearance at the AGM of the lobby group European Football Clubs in Rome last year when Ceferin was absent.Having expressed its outrage, Uefa’s next steps on the Balogun matter are unclear, and will in part depend on the outcome of Belgium’s appeal against Fifa’s decision. Sources at the Royal Belgian Football Association have told the Guardian they are not expecting another U-turn, and as a result are exploring other legal options, including taking Fifa to the court of arbitration for sport in Lausanne after the tournament.While most of Europe’s biggest clubs, and as a result much of the EFC, are in favour of expanding the Club World Cup for self‑interested financial reasons, Ceferin remains personally opposed due to concerns that a 48-team competition would entrench further the dominance of the elite, as well as posing a threat to the pre-eminence of the Champions League. With Fifa preparing to open negotiations with the six continental confederations, domestic leagues and player unions next year over the shape of the global calendar after 2030, there are a number of crucial areas in which Uefa could make life awkward for them.Determining the date of the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia is looming large, and a Uefa-led protest involving the European national associations, domestic leagues and player unions would at least give them some leverage in negotiating with Fifa. Although with Trump and Prince Mohammed seemingly in Fifa’s corner, it may not be a fair fight.

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Parts of 2018’s Golden Generation still remain, but there are more than enough good players in this Belgian side to give the US headachesThe whiff of unfulfilment lingers around Belgium. The Golden Generation – and the fact it never quite achieved what it might have done – has dominated coverage of their last three tournaments.This perhaps isn’t quite fair – either on those who were part of that group or those who have followed.Beating Brazil in the quarter-final to reach the semi-final in Russia 2018 was a fine achievement, but that side featuring Vincent Kompany, Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne then lost 1-0 to France in the semi. The squad was good enough to win a tournament, but that was as close as they came. Courtois, Lukaku, De Bruyne, Axel Witsel and the right-back Thomas Meunier have all endured since 2018. The 2026 Belgium squad is not, as 2022 felt, the Golden Generation redux, just a little bit older and a little bit more tired. A new wave is emerging and, while the likes of Leandro Trossard, Youri Tielemans, Jérémy Doku and Charles De Ketelaere may not have quite the star quality of the previous generation, they’re still decent players – perhaps not World Cup winners, but certainly not to be dismissed. And remember, this is Belgium, a country of just under 12 million; it’s not realistic to think it can consistently produce potential world champions.This squad seems cursed to be judged against the standards of two World Cups ago, somehow blamed for not being as good as their predecessors and at the same time damned for those predecessors’ failure to convert talent into silverware.A key member of the emerging generation is Diego Moreira, whose introduction from the bench after 63 minutes for Hans Vanaken, a 21-year-old replacing a 33-year-old, was one of the major reasons for the transformation of the 3-2 win against Senegal. Suddenly Belgium had a pace and invention on the left that Doku had not been able to provide. Where Doku had put in just two crosses, Moreira managed five.Although Liège meatballs are his favourite food, Moreira wanted to play for Portugal. His dream, he has said, was to play alongside Cristiano Ronaldo – although he may look at this tournament and reflect he had a lucky escape. Moreira was born in Liège but qualifies for Portugal through his father, the former Standard midfielder Almami Moreira, who was capped for Portugal at youth level but played senior international football for Guinea-Bissau. Diego’s grandfather was also a footballer, the German forward Helmut Graf, who was part of the Standard side that lost to Barcelona in the 1982 Cup-Winners’ Cup final.Moreira moved to Portugal to be closer to his father when he was 15, joining Benfica a year later after Standard managed to block an initial switch. He never started a league game there though and was one of the many young talents swept up by BlueCo Chelsea before being offloaded to the junior partner in their multi-club ownership, Strasbourg. He’s been a regular there over the past two seasons and now, at 21, it feels as though he is properly established, part of the emerging future of Belgian football alongside the likes of Joaquin Seys, Nathan Ndoye and Matias Fernandez-Pardo.It’s unlikely Moreira will start against the USA on Monday, despite how disappointing Doku has been so far, but his performance against Senegal means there’s no reason for Rudi Garcia to have any qualms about bringing him on.Garcia’s substitutions against Senegal were notably bold as, needing two goals, he withdrew Doku and De Bruyne, high-profile figures who might be considered the most obvious source of creativity. On instead came Nicolas Raskin and Dodi Lukébakio, and with them memories of the 1986 World Cup.Back then, infighting between Anderlecht players led to defeat to Mexico in their first game. Belgium then ground out a 2-1 win over an Iraq side who had had a man sent off early in the second half. At which the coach Guy Thys dropped five senior players and brought in the likes of Stéphane Demol, who was 20, Patrick Vervoort, who was 21 and Georges Grün, who was 23. It wasn’t an immediate success, as Belgium drew 2-2, but there was a renewed sense of spirit and purpose.That draw got Belgium through to a last-16 tie against the Soviet Union, in which the 20-year-old Enzo Scifo, a prodigy whose place in the team had never been in doubt, got the first equaliser in a game Belgium eventually won 4-3 after extra time. Spain were seen off on penalties in the quarter-final, leading to a meeting with Argentina in the semi-final and an inevitable Diego Maradona-inflicted exit. The win over the Soviet Union in the last 16, though, had changed the mood.A victory over the USA might achieve something similar. It’s not even so much about this tournament any more, or how far Belgium might go. It’s more about creating something new, shaking off the weariness and sense of underachievement that has dogged Belgian football since that semi-final in St Petersburg, and opening the door to a freer future.This is an extract from Soccer Desk: World Cup edition, a newsletter from the Guardian US that will run regularly during the tournament. Subscribe for free here.

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While England conceded twice to Mexico and survived a siege at Azteca, numbers show a performance of true gritWas this England’s best performance since 1966? On the surface, England conceded 20 shots in their 3-2 win against Mexico at the Azteca Stadium – which sounds alarming.Yet if you drill into the numbers, the 19 non-penalty shots they faced were collectively worth only 1.09 expected goals (xG). Thomas Tuchel’s men defended superbly.It was inevitable that they would need to once Jarell Quansah was sent off in the 54th minute. A defensive reshuffle led to England ending the match by fielding substitutes in John Stones, Djed Spence and Dan Burn alongside Marc Guéhi and Ezri Konsa in a back five. They withstood intense pressure. Mexico attempted 52 crosses in the match, with Roberto Alvarado alone responsible for 23 (19 more than England).But while Bukayo Saka provided an assist with the only successful cross by anybody on his side, Mexico created little of value with their passes from wide areas. This was because it was usually the head or foot of an England player that got to the ball first. The team made 49 clearances, their second most in a World Cup match without extra time since records began.Over half of their tally occurred after Raúl Jiménez made the score 3-2 from the penalty spot. England made 37 clearances in the second half – 20 after the clock showed 81 minutes had elapsed.It was a tremendous team effort to see out the result, with nine men making at least one clearance in the final nine minutes plus stoppage time. Arguably the most important players in this regard were the subs. It wasn’t just that Burn, Spence and Stones made numerous clearances, interceptions and blocks during their collective 100 minutes on the pitch, it’s that they did very little else.Their task was almost solely to withstand the rolling waves of attacks. “I’m known for my height and the way I defend, that’s blocking shots, blocking crosses, I was really trying to grind it out,” Burn said after the match, with an air of understatement.Where Burn used his head, Jordan Pickford relied on his fists. The Everton goalkeeper punched the ball clear 18 times in the most recent Premier League season, less than once every other match. He recorded five in the period after England went down to 10 men in this game, dominating his penalty area to heights rarely seen from anyone. Not since 1974 has a goalkeeper made more punches in a World Cup match.Similar defensive prowess is likely to be required in the quarter-final. Erling Haaland has scored five headed goals in 12 matches in World Cup qualifying and the tournament itself, as many as he managed in league and Europe for Manchester City last season. Norway will look to find their talisman with crosses but Tuchel’s defence proved against Mexico they will relish the battle.While the jury may be out on whether this was England’s best match in 60 years, the figures show the defensive performance was undeniably outstanding.

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Unused substitute Henderson fell over advertising boardMidfielder given oxygen and taken to hospitalA historic night for England as they beat Mexico 3-2 in their World Cup last-16 tie was soured by an injury sustained by Jordan Henderson after falling over an advertising board in the post-match celebrations.The former Liverpool captain, who was an unused substitute, was taken to hospital and it was confirmed later that he had broken his wrist and that he is out of the tournament.Shortly after the full-time whistle, as England’s players went to celebrate in front of their fans, medical staff were seen rushing to the vicinity. Henderson was given oxygen and carried off on a stretcher.Jude Bellingham told the BBC: “He’s in a bit of bother but our medical team have got everything under control probably. Best not to give too much detail when I don’t know too much what is going on. Everyone was there to support him and even that was a beautiful thing to see.”Thomas Tuchel, the England head coach, said later: “Jordan injured his wrist, it just doesn’t fit to the evening that Jordan is not with us. I don’t know the procedure, the doctor told me he is in the hospital.”Henderson had been booked during a fractious game over a confrontation on the sidelines. His sole appearance in the tournament came as an 84th-minute substitute against Panama.England defeated Mexico with two goals from Bellingham and a penalty from Harry Kane, hanging on to win after Jarell Quansah had been sent off for catching Jesús Gallardoan with his studs early in the second half.

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Haakon joins in with trademark rowing celebrationNorway to face England in last eight after beating BrazilIncredible scenes played out across Norway after their history-making 2-1 victory over Brazil on Sunday. Outside the royal palace in Oslo, Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon joined a sea of thousands of fans seated on the ground for the football team’s trademark row after the national team secured their best placing at a World Cup. They will meet England in the quarter-finals on Saturday.Over 100,000 fans are estimated to have hit the streets of the capital, while thousands of others took part in jubilant celebrations in towns and cities across the country. One fan dressed in Norwegian colours was seen crowdsurfing in an inflatable boat.Norway’s star man, Erling Haaland, who scored both goals against Brazil in the contest at New York New Jersey Stadium, summed up the national sentiment. “It’s the sickest night,” he told broadcaster NRK. “Yes, maybe in Norwegian history.” The Manchester City striker also outlined his hope that his country will learn from Brazil. “We must cultivate the same pride in playing for Norway,” Haaland said, adding that he wants all young children who start playing the sport in Norway to want to play for their national team.Ståle Solbakken, the national team head coach, said he is concerned for the state of Norwegians’ health amid all the celebrating. “It was Erling who said it last time, that Norway has changed for ever. Now there will be another week of partying,” he told NRK. “Then there will be a Saturday game. So I fear for people’s health.”Widespread football and Haaland mania will also be a welcome distraction for both the Norwegian government and the royal family after being engulfed in headlines over the crown princess Mette Marit, who recently had a lung transplant, and diplomats’ alleged relations with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, not to mention Marit’s son Marius Borg Høiby’s recent rape conviction.Karl-Petter Løken, secretary general of the Norwegian football association, was ecstatic. “It doesn’t get any better than this,” he said. “It is incredible for all of Norway and for everyone who loves Norwegian football.”The team’s performance has gained admiration – and even support – from neighbouring rivals Sweden after their team went out to France last week. Writing in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, one commentator said: “There are matches, there are wins – and there are also monuments.” The team, he added, had “raised a new Norwegian national monument”.

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This was the most extraordinary night of football as an experience of the mind, body, bones, guts and blood“Enn-JOYYY this unforrrgGEDDABLE Fifa Worrrld Cup … expPERRIENCE!!” the strangely guileless American-accented public address had commanded, with 40 minutes still to run before the delayed kick-off in Mexico City.Er. OK then. Looking out over the mist-shrouded cliff face of the Estadio Azteca, drenched to the inner seams in generational rain, throbbing through the chest from the endless waves of noise, the word enjoy just didn’t seem to capture the basic sensory experience.England played and defeated an occasion here. Don’t play the occasion: this is always the advice. But Mexico in the Azteca isn’t really anything else. The only way not to play this occasion is not to play at all.In the event this was the most extraordinary, agonising night of football as an experience of the mind, body, bones, guts, blood and back of the neck. During which England overcame not only the Mexican national football team over 90 minutes plus an extendable eternity of added time; but an event, an iconography, a set of ghosts.Down to 10 men and faced with the relentless hostile will of the Azteca crowd the players took themselves into some deep, strange places. This was total immersion, a knockout game that felt at times like watching Colonel Kurtz play Colonel Kurtz at full-contact death-match ping-pong.England will now go to Miami to play Norway on Saturday for a place in the semi-finals of the World Cup, reward for what is, in a relatively thin field, their greatest overseas World Cup knockout victory.They played here for almost 50 minutes with 10 men against a host nation in its own temple of doom. They had the game twice, almost threw it way twice, then held on to it at the end with the bloodied tips of their fingernails, to the extent Jordan Henderson somehow ended up putting himself in hospital just trying to celebrate victory in a way that felt proportionate.But this was a day when reason disappeared, and when time did strange and terrible things, the clocks turned slowly, then quickly, then stopped, then scrolled backwards. Most notably in the deep gouge of the final 20 minutes, and the descent into something that felt less like sport, more like a highly formalised peyote dream.By that stage Raúl Jiménez had scored from the spot to make the score 3-2 to England, a man down after Jarell Quansah’s red card. How to get from that point to the end of this, 20 more minutes of regular time and already no air left to breathe, Mexico pushing England back into their own deep double bolt?This was always one of those days when football feels like an abstract entity, too big to be contained by teams and tactics and the shapes on the TV screen. Even in its quiet times Mexico City is a place of constant churning energies, like a thriving rebel megalopolis from the Star Wars-verse, where things are always being furiously built out of parts.This was one if its quiet times. From the early morning, football was happening, the roads around the Ángel de la Independencia thick with klaxons, drums, shaving-foam showers, green shirts clustered around the ceremonial Birdman, streets already closed or being closed or basically giving up.The atmosphere around the city through that extended buildup was agreeably loose and unmanicured, with a sense looming over the day of some vast and leaky overblown event in train that is by now its own entity, an emotional cloud about to open.From midday the city was assailed by a Nosferatu style storm, huge bolts of perfectly crisp forked lightning overhead, thunder to shake the buildings. And this is a place that overflows when the rain is this heavy, becoming a vast rolling network of water features, gushing drains, overflows. Were England too hot-weather prepped. Could they do it on a cold wet night in Santa Úrsula?The Azteca has been renovated but retains its full brutalist concrete glory, the ring of indestructible walkways, the sci-fi space-cruiser style wings around its retaining bowl. From the seats in the gods even the delay to kick-off felt epic and unassailable, like being told you now have to reclimb Everest just to get to the start line.But the noise was still constant, ramped up a level for the pre-match playing of Wonderwall, greeted by huge and relentless boos. Hmm. A lot of Blur fans in the house, then.The anthems, the tiny white and green shirts, even the absurd Fifa frippery had a kind of majesty to them. And by now this was one of those occasions where football creates its own self-contained world, where just for a moment, nothing can possibly exist outside this space.Fast forward, then, to those final 10 minutes. By now England were gasping in lungfuls of Azteca air, 3-2 up but fighting what felt like looming defeat. The clock is never your friend in football. Somehow it was only 80 minutes. Wait, how did we actually get to 80 minutes? Thomas Tuchel had been breathlessly present in every second of this, pouring his energies into decoding those great, fat, soggy, passing moments.He sent on Dan Burn, Djed Spence and John Stones, five defenders flat across the back as Mexico swarmed pleasantly but without real incision, like being assailed by a swarm of dandelion seeds.Every England player was by now fully inside this space, the close-quarter wrestles, the fine angles, the need to stay still and upright even in the tightest of crushes, where every tick of the clock becomes its own distinct event.But then of course England were playing an occasion and also a place. Mexico kicked off unbeaten here in 10 World Cup matches. In many way this place is the World Cup. Not just on the basic numbers, a record 24 games played, but also in myth and imagery. It’s hazy grainy summer light. It’s El Diego redefining superstardom. It’s 1970, Brazil, crowds swarming the pitch transported with joy just at the beauty and the glory and the art, football’s own Woodstock.What were England’s memories here before tonight? El Diego, the brilliance, the chicanery, Peter Shilton waving his arms around like a distressed orangutan warding off a swarm of hornets. That was also 40 years ago. And time, well time turns out to be a strangely flexible thing.Eighty-six minutes gone. The blessed relief of a Mexican offside, a yellow card, eating their own seconds away. Eighty-eight minutes and the game was now an event taking place exclusively around the England goal. Spence backspun the ball away from two green shirts in front of goal, breakdance defence. Whatever it takes.Harry Kane came off having run himself into the turf. The gut punch of 11 minutes of added time came and went,It was hard, at that point to even remember that much earlier in the day this game had actually kicked off. Tuchel had gone with solidity at the start, bringing in Quansah at right-back. And England’s first act was to launch a hard flat howling Jordan Pickford punt into the Mexican area. This seemed a good idea. Mexico like to start in a swarm. England prefer to start like a creaky old man getting out of bed and packing his morning pipe, slippers on the wrong feet, newspaper upside down.England had played well in the first half. They played it slow for a bit, drawing an explosion of furious shouts and whistles. Tuchel was here in blue raincoat and waterproof ankle swingers, like a malnourished minor duke out walked the hounds, and he was up on his feet waving his arms as Jordan Pickford made a wonderful save on 15 minutes from a Jiménez header.Kane had two touches in the opening half hour. But on 36 minutes England scored. Bukayo Saka made it with a lovely run and floated cross for Jude Bellingham to head home. And then it was two, Bellingham again, sliding in and wanting it into the net after England had counterpressed.Maybe 2-0 is a difficult lead. England collapsed for a bit and conceded before half-time as the stadium surged and writhed. Half-time came like a rescue helicopter. But England came out strong and were winning this game right up until Quansah’s deserved red card for a reckless lunge on 53 minutes. He had played well to that point, stately and upright, chugging about like a police launch on the River Thames.England scored again, Kane converting a penalty. And so, into the pain zone. By the end Mexico had begun to shoot wildly from strange angles, melting a little themselves. And finally it arrived, the end of an event, the defeat of a spectacle, the players simply collapsing where they stood.It will take some time to recover from this. “The players are exhausted to the next level and it is beautiful to see,” Tuchel said, smiling a strange, wonky, gleeful smile. And he was right. They were, and it was.

World Cup News

Close122England head coach Thomas Tuchel is full of praise for his side after they held on to beat Mexico 3-2 in the Azteca Stadium, but is critical of the match officials at the World Cup.Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated topicsFootballFollow Footballclose panelYou are now following FootballUpdates from your Sport topics will appear in My Sport and in a collection on the Sport homepage.England Men's Football TeamFollow England Men's Football Teamclose panelYou are now following England Men's Football TeamUpdates from your Sport topics will appear in My Sport and in a collection on the Sport homepage.MexicoFollow Mexicoclose panelYou are now following MexicoUpdates from your Sport topics will appear in My Sport and in a collection on the Sport homepage.FIFA World Cup 2026Follow FIFA World Cup 2026

World Cup News

Close00England midfielder Jordan Henderson suffers a wrist injury while celebrating his side's dramatic World Cup last-16 win over Mexico.Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated topicsFootballFollow Footballclose panelYou are now following FootballUpdates from your Sport topics will appear in My Sport and in a collection on the Sport homepage.England Men's Football TeamFollow England Men's Football Teamclose panelYou are now following England Men's Football TeamUpdates from your Sport topics will appear in My Sport and in a collection on the Sport homepage.MexicoFollow Mexicoclose panelYou are now following MexicoUpdates from your Sport topics will appear in My Sport and in a collection on the Sport homepage.FIFA World Cup 2026Follow FIFA World Cup 2026