The shock action Keir Starmer took to help England beat Mexico at the World Cup | OneFootball

The outgoing Prime Minster is reported to have personally intervened over the scheduling of the Three Lions' World Cup last 16 match in Mexico City.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is reported to have personally intervened over the scheduling of England's crucial round of 16 match against Mexico at the Azteca Stadium.

​​​​​​England's adventure at the 2026 World Cup finals continues following a breathless 3-2 win at The Azteca Stadium against co-hosts Mexico in the early hours of Monday morning.

Two goals from Jude Bellingham and a Harry Kane penalty were enough to send Thomas Tuchel's team through to a quarter-final meeting with Norway at the end of a dramatic evening which ended the Three Lions' luckless record at one of the most iconic venues in world football.

Having won a knockout match themselves for the first time since 1986 in the previous round and with home advantage on their side, the home side were desperate to wring every drop of home advantage that they could from this match, and it's now been confirmed that it took the personal intervention of the Prime Minister to prevent Mexico from claiming an even bigger advantage than they already held as a co-hosting nation.

Sir Keir Starmer personally intervened in the build-up to England's match against Mexico

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The Sun have reported that an intervention from outgoing UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer may have given England a leg-up in their quest to get past Mexico and into the last eight of this summer's World Cup.

They have reported that Starmer stepped in over concerns that Mexico were trying to gain an "unfair advantage" over England in advance of the two teams meeting. The match was due to kick-off at 7pm local time - 1am in England - but there were reports before the match that the possibility of bringing kick-off forward to 1pm local time - 7pm in England because of concerns about the weather in Mexico City.

But while concerns about the weather turned out to be justifed - kick-off did end up being put back by an hour because of the conditions - The Sun report that Starmer was concerned that Mexico could seek to get an unfair advantage by bringing the kick-off forward. A source told them: "The Mexicans were really talking up the storm and were pressing to move the game."

Mexico City is at an altitude of over 2,000 metres above sea level, and such conditions require acclimatisation for athletes. By bringing the kick-off forward by six hours, Thomas Tuchel's team would have missed out on six crucial hours of getting the players prepared for playing the match under these very different conditions.

What England fans are saying about the Three Lions' win at altitude in Mexico City

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England's dramatic win in Mexico City has caused a storm of comment on social media, not least with regard to playing the match at an altitude of over 2,000 metres:

Though some were less than convinced by the big altitude debate:

Some fans could see Thomas Tuchel's game plan to deal with the conditions:

And there were plenty of Mexican fans who were prepared to concede that the Three Lions had thoroughly deserved their win on the night:

Altitude is a known issue for visiting teams playing at The Azteca Stadium

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England's win in Mexico City was all the more impressive for the conditions under which the match was played. Stifling heat was not the issue for this particular match, though; altitude was considered England's big concern during the build-up to this crucial match.

Playing at altitude has long been known to cause potential issues for players who are unused to it, and this hands Mexico an advantage when they're playing at home. At high altitude, the air is thinner, meaning that it contains less oxygen. This can make breathing more cumbersome than it would otherwise be.

This isn't the only issue that teams can face, either. DIfferent air pressure at a higher altitude can also make the match ball behave in surprising ways, with the thinner air making it lighter and more likely to be overhit when attempting passing or crosses.

Having been raised in this environment, this is not an issue for Mexican players, but it can be for opposition teams. It doesn't take that long to acclimatise to playing at higher altitude, but the England team essentially had about as little time as it's possible to have in order to adjust to their conditions. Small wonder, then, that the Mexicans may have been keen to press home their advantage, in this respect.

It's difficult to quantify precisely, but it has long been considered that this is an advantage for Mexico. Going into the England match, Mexico had played 89 competitive games at the stadium over the previous 60 years and had won 70 of them, drawing 17 and only losing twice, although some have countered that these benefits have been overstated.

England's outstanding performance against motivated opposition lends credence to the possibility that pre-match talk about altitude had been over-emphasised, but the Prime Minister's intervention certainly didn't seem to do Thomas Tuchel's team any harm.