​MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – JUNE 30: Raul Jimenez of Mexico celebrates 2-0 with Julian Quinones of Mexico during the World Cup match between Mexico v Ecuador at the Mexico City Stadium on June 30, 2026 in Mexico City Mexico (Photo by Eric Verhoeven/Soccrates/Getty Images) | Getty Images Forty years later, Mexico one again won a knockout stage in a World Cup after defeating Ecuador by a 2-0 score. Mexico thus ended the curse of the “Quinto Partido” after losing 7 straight knockout matches. While the changes in the tournament means that Mexico only makes the Round of 16 (which they did in those 7 straight World Cups), they did get their second ever victory in a knockout stage of the World Cup. Mexico will remain in Mexico and in Estadio Azteca as they face off against England on Sunday, as they tried to get to the Quarterfinals for their third time ever. The 1st half started with Mexico having the return of key players to the starting 11 like Raul Jimenez, Erik Lira and Johan Vasquez. Mexico went all out on offense and Roberto Alvarado got off a left footed shot that was blocked by Ecuador’s defense. Gilberto Mora got off a right footed shot that went just wide. A great cross into the area from Luis Romo was headed just wide by Jimenez, who was alone in the area, in a bad miss. Mexico kept coming as Ecuador was reeling. After getting the ball in the area, Mora got off a great right footed shot that would just miss wide. Ecuador had their first chance when John Yeboah got off a left footed shot from inside the area that forced a great save from Mexico’s goalkeeper, Raul Rangel but the ref incorrectly ruled it as going wide, failing to give a corner kick chance to Ecuador. Off a quick give and go, Mora made a fantastic lobbed pass that had Julian Quiñones go thru and make a run into the area, get off a great right footed shot past Ecuador’s goalkeeper, Hernan Galindez, and into the net to score a great goal that gave Mexico the 1-0 lead. It was a well deserved goal as Quiñones became only the 2nd ever Mexico to score more than 2 goals in a single World Cup (Luis Hernandez in 1998 being the only one before as he scored 4 times). After mistaken pass from Joel Ordoñez to Mexico’s attack, a good combination play between Quiñones and Raul Jimenez, ended with Jimenez getting off a great right footed shot past Galindez to score and give Mexico the 2-0 lead. It was another great play from Mexico as Jimenez proved to be up to the challenge in hustling and getting off a shot in that play, making up for his earlier miss. A left footed shot from Yeboah forced Rangel to make a fantastic save. A cross into the area was headed by Jimenez but went wide. A volley from Jimenez would just be missed by Mora from being headed from close range. The 2nd half started with Ecuador subbing out Joel Ordoñez and Alan Franco for Angelo Preciado and Yaimar Medina. After getting the ball in the area, Alvarado got off a left footed shot that went wide. Pedro Vite got off