Mexico breaks a 40-year-old curse…and Quiñones follows in the footsteps of the elders | sports

With the well-deserved victory over Ecuador on Tuesday, the Mexico national team achieved its first victory in a World Cup knockout round match since defeating Bulgaria 2-0 in the round of 16 in 1986, which was also held on home soil, thus ending a series of eight consecutive matches that witnessed its elimination from the knockout rounds, which is the longest series of its kind in the history of the tournament.

Mexico became the first CONCACAF team to eliminate a South American team in a World Cup knockout round match, as South American teams won the previous five matches in the knockout rounds against CONCACAF teams.

Mexico has become only the second team since 1994 to keep a clean sheet in each of its first four matches in a single World Cup, after Switzerland in 2006, which was eliminated on penalties in its fourth match despite not conceding a single goal in the tournament.

The Ecuadorian national team conceded more than one goal in one match for the first time since its 2-1 loss to Venezuela in the 2024 Copa America, ending a series of 26 consecutive matches in which it succeeded in preventing its opponents from scoring two or more goals.

Julián Quiñones (3 goals) and Raul Jimenez (2 goals) became the second Mexican duo to score two or more goals each in a single World Cup, after Luis Hernandez (4 goals) and Ricardo Pelaez (2 goals) in 1998.

Julián Quiñones became the second Mexican player to score a goal and assist in a World Cup knockout match, joining Manuel Negrete, who achieved this against Bulgaria in 1986.

After scoring one goal and assisting another in this match, Julián Quiñones contributed four goals in this year’s World Cup (3 goals, 1 assist), equaling Luis Hernandez’s record (4 goals) in 1998 as the Mexican player who made the most goalscoring contributions in a single edition of the World Cup since 1966.

Mexico’s 2-0 lead in the first half marks the first time it has led by more than one goal at the end of the first half in a World Cup match, in its 64th match in the tournament’s history.

With his assist tonight, Roberto Alvarado became the first Mexican player to provide three assists in a single World Cup since 1966.

At 17 years and 259 days, Mexican Gilberto Moura became the second-youngest player to start a World Cup knockout match, behind only Pele in 1958 (17 years and 239 days in his first knockout appearance).