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Day 21: Belgium's Great Escape, Kane's Rescue, and Mexico Break the Curse

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Knockout football does not do you any favours, and Day 21 was the day the Round of 32 reminded everyone why. Three ties, three winners, and barely a comfortable minute between them: Mexico exorcised four decades of ghosts in the small hours at the Azteca, England spent 75 minutes staring into an abyss before Harry Kane hauled them out of it, and Belgium — dead and buried at 2-0 down with four minutes left — produced one of the great escapes in the tournament’s history against Senegal in Seattle.

The bracket drew its own subplot, too: Mexico and England both came through, which means they now collide in the last 16 at the Azteca. First, the football.

Mexico 2-0 Ecuador: the Azteca finally lets go of 1986

Some curses are older than the players trying to break them. Mexico had not won a knockout match at a World Cup since 1986 — the last time they hosted — and every tournament since had ended at the same locked door. On a night when lightning forced kick-off back by an hour, Javier Aguirre’s side kicked the door clean off its hinges.

Once the storm passed, Mexico brought their own. Julián Quiñones cut in from the left and thrashed an unstoppable finish into the top corner on 22 minutes, and nine minutes later he turned provider, feeding Raúl Jiménez to rifle home a second. Two goals inside the first half, in front of a crowd Sky Sports put at 80,824. Ecuador actually saw more of the ball, but Mexico’s 15 shots to seven told you who carried the danger.

There was history in the team sheet, too. Seventeen-year-old Gilberto Mora started for Mexico, becoming — per Al Jazeera and The Independent — the second-youngest player to start a World Cup knockout match, behind only Pelé in 1958. Jiménez’s goal was his 47th for Mexico, moving him within five of Javier Hernández’s all-time national record, according to CNA.

Ecuador’s night ended in frustration. Deep into stoppage time, Arsenal defender Piero Hincapié was shown a straight red for covering his mouth during an altercation with substitute Santiago Giménez — a bizarre end to a miserable evening that left Sebastián Beccacece’s ten men out of ideas. Mexico, four games unbeaten and still yet to concede at this tournament, are unbeaten in their last ten World Cup matches at the Azteca. Fortress intact.

England 2-1 Congo DR: Kane drags them off the cliff edge

For 75 minutes in Atlanta, England were writing the kind of headline that gets managers sacked. Brian Cipenga — scoring his first international goal on Congo DR’s first-ever World Cup knockout appearance — punished slack defending down England’s right after seven minutes, and from there Thomas Tuchel’s side laboured against a superbly organised Leopards defence and an inspired goalkeeper in Le Havre’s Lionel Mpasi.

Then Kane did what Kane does. Anthony Gordon, on as a 61st-minute substitute, whipped in a cross for the captain to head home on 75 minutes, and 11 minutes later Gordon supplied again for Kane to shift the ball and smash a right-foot rocket past Mpasi. Two assists off the bench, two moments of quality from a striker who — per FIFA — dragged England to their first World Cup comeback win from a goal down since the 1966 final.

The numbers keep stacking up. The BBC noted the brace took him to 13 World Cup goals — above Pelé, into joint-sixth on the all-time list — and to 84 for England, level with Ferenc Puskás; he’s also the first England player to score twice in a World Cup knockout tie since Gary Lineker in 1990. On the Golden Boot race, with Kane and Erling Haaland on five and Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi on six, Tuchel said of the contenders: “They are all sharks. They smell blood.”

England were, in truth, poor, but Kane already sounded like a man looking ahead. “We are in the part of the tournament where we have to grind out results,” he told Al Jazeera. The reward for this one is a trip to the Azteca.

Belgium 3-2 Senegal (AET): the greatest escape

If you left this one early, you missed a World Cup you’ll be telling people about for years. Senegal — through as one of the best third-placed teams from a brutal group with France and Norway, and playing without the injured Édouard Mendy — were sensational for 85 minutes. Habib Diarra bundled in the opener on 25 minutes after Ismaïla Sarr had rattled the woodwork, and Sarr’s chest-and-thump finish from Moussa Niakhaté’s long ball on 51 minutes was one of the goals of the tournament. Two-nil, cruising, one foot in the last 16.

What followed defied belief. Rudi Garcia had already gambled, hauling off Kevin De Bruyne and Jérémy Doku on 56 minutes — the earliest De Bruyne has ever been substituted at a World Cup, a change ESPN reported left the playmaker visibly bemused. Yet with four minutes of normal time left, substitute Romelu Lukaku turned in Thomas Meunier’s cross, and three minutes later captain Youri Tielemans — who had earlier had a touchline row with Leandro Trossard at a hydration break — headed in Trossard’s cross. From 2-0 and cruising to 2-2 and level in 180 seconds.

Extra time was where the cruelty lived. Senegal spurned a golden chance to retake the lead, and deep into the second period referee Saíd Martínez was sent to the monitor. After a lengthy review he awarded a penalty for Lamine Camara’s challenge on Tielemans — a decision pundits queued up to dispute. “I genuinely don’t believe that is a penalty,” Gary Neville said on ITV, per the BBC; Roy Keane called it “a bit harsh.” Tielemans didn’t care. He tucked it away, and the BBC timed the goal at 124 minutes and 44 seconds — the latest strike in World Cup history.

It was, FIFA noted, the second time Belgium have recovered from two goals down to win a World Cup knockout tie, the first being their 3-2 win over Japan in 2018; only Germany, per the BBC, had ever managed the feat before them. For Senegal, it was a gut-punch layered with déjà vu: Pape Thiaw’s side were stripped of their Africa Cup of Nations title in January after walking off over a contentious VAR penalty in the final. “We’re out — it hurts,” Thiaw said afterwards. “We weren’t able to hold on to our two-goal lead. We have to accept this. That’s football.” Sarr, whose four goals here left him just one behind Asamoah Gyan as Africa’s all-time World Cup scorer, deserved a better ending. Football rarely deals in what people deserve.

Standings and what’s next

Day 21’s headline is the collision it produced: Mexico vs England in the last 16, at the Azteca. England’s last World Cup visit to that stadium was the 1986 quarter-final and Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” — and now they return to a fortress where Mexico have lost twice in 89 competitive games, at altitude, before a crowd that has waited 40 years for exactly this. Tuchel’s side will need to be far better than they were in Atlanta.

Belgium, meanwhile, stay in Seattle to await the winner of USA vs Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the balance of play they should be booking flights home; on the scoreboard, they’re a side nobody will want to draw.

You can track every remaining fixture on the schedule, check how the field shook out via the group tables — including how Senegal squeezed through as a best third-placed team — and follow all the knockout drama live at whatsthescore.football. Three ties down on the day, and not one of them held its nerve.

Sources

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