England brace for Norway clash after night in Mexico that could change everything | OneFootball

Gutsy 3-2 victory at Estadio Azteca has potential to be transformative for Three Lions

In Mexico City, fans of the national team cheered and sang and celebrated in the streets after winning a scintillating match that befitted its setting at Estadio Azteca, one of the great cathedrals of football.

They wore not green, but red and white. They were England fans.

England’s 3-2 victory over Mexico was an instant classic and it was seismic, the match that might change it all for them. Vastly outnumbered by Mexico’s deafening support and tested by high altitude at Estadio Azteca, so many aspects of their gritty performance stirred the senses and no doubt breathed new life into the belief England can win the World Cup.

That injection of belief will have been felt universally. England supporters have surged in faith that this can be the year. The England team themselves took great belief from their backs-to the-wall defending for what felt an age, to close out the match and a most memorable of wins.

And the other contenders at this World Cup will have taken note, too. The scoreline was the same as Argentina’s margin of victory over Cape Verde at the same stage yet these two matches were totally different. England’s victory was the most impressive of the round of 16, except for Norway’s stunning eviction of Brazil.

It is Norway who lie in wait in the quarter-finals, with the Three Lions taking their place in the last eight of the World Cup for the third consecutive edition of the tournament.

This may be Norway’s maiden quarter-final, but they are not to be taken lightly. They have proven a sensible team capable of holding their own in tense contests and applying the sort of game management seldom seen from nations who have been absent from the competition for almost 30 years.

Erling Haaland and Norway await England in the quarter-finals

AFP/Getty

Norway’s campaign, as it was always bound to, has been spearheaded by the Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, who has seven goals in four games at his first World Cup. His display against Brazil, in particular, forced those not already engaged in the Nordic side’s performances to sit up and take serious notice. Warning heeded?

England will do their homework as they always do but will be focusing on themselves, their own merits and the odd defect Thomas Tuchel and his coaching staff are intent on curing before arrival in Florida. They are in a handy period of five days between games, enough time to finish basking in the delight of a magnificent win in Mexico City before swiftly turning attention to their bid to reach a first World Cup semi-final since 2018.

It is Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham who have propelled England to the quarter-finals, and they are playing at such a phenomenally high level that there will be immense confidence pulsing through the camp that a World Cup campaign that had gone a little stale since the Croatia thriller has caught a refreshing second wind thanks to England’s reclamation of the Azteca.