Mexico City drowns England in colour before showdown

As England arrive in Mexico City for their last-16 tie, the capital is already living inside football: a wave of green shirts, subway-packed fan travel and a street-festival atmosphere carrying the nation’s hope—after Mexico’s last-32 win over Ecuador and amid

By the time the metro doors spit people out onto Insurgentes. the city is already tuned to a single frequency: football. On a small enclosed pitch nearby, it’s four-on-four and the altitude feels like another defender. One of the hoodies miscontrols an easy ball and the sighs from his teammates cut across the noise as a t-shirt darts in to stab home. Even the casual kickabout looks strained by the thin air.

Across the square. armed police lean on barriers. staring down a cop-on-cop exhibition that feels more like theatre than policing—until the chanting. the bass. and the crowds rushing in make it clear this is not just a street show. The wave sweeping through the capital is green, relentless, and unmistakably Mexico City.

Underneath it all sits the darker note the celebrations refuse to cover up. Over the past two days. Mexico has been asking hard questions about safety while preparing for the titanic meeting with Thomas Tuchel’s side. Four people died during what had started as something joyous following the country’s 2-0 victory over Ecuador. in the shadow of the Angel of Independence. Three of them—including a 19-year-old woman—suffocated.

Eyewitnesses said fans on Reforma simply could not move. wedged in “like sardines.” They pointed to quieter offshoots of Mexico’s equivalent of The Mall as a more comfortable vantage point. There was chanting of ‘we’ll swim. we’ll swim’—taken by many to reference the Pixar film Finding Nemo—before pushing escalated into panic that lasted over half an hour. Screaming women and children ended up on the floor, with people stepping over them.

City mayor Clara Brugada is resisting calls to limit some events for the last-16 match. arguing that Mexico City has installed more screens than anywhere else in either the United States and Canada. so decentralising watchalongs should not prove too difficult. The Angel remains a focal point for celebration and protest. and it has also become a place barricaded for fear of unrest.

The contradiction hangs in the air: a nation desperate to be at the centre of history. and a city still bruised by the reality of how quickly crowds can turn. A renowned columnist in daily newspaper Milenio has argued that co-hosting this tournament. alongside the success engineered by head coach Javier Aguirre. promotes nationalism and “idiotic tragedies. ” and that monuments such as the Angel—meant to unite—are treated like targets.

Yet the streets keep moving. Passengers pack the subway after Mexico’s 3-0 win over Czech Republic in the group stage and after the 1-1 drama of the tournament’s earlier march through the bracket. On Thursday afternoon. this is only just over halfway of a five-mile journey that will eventually crystallise what a last-16 game with England means in a country so often at war with itself.

Thursday’s schedule starts in the old town, ‘centro historico’, with the Angel of Independence as the destination. Brugada estimates that this area hosted 1.4 million supporters to watch Mexico’s first World Cup knockout victory for four decades against Ecuador earlier in the week.

Then comes Paseos de la Reforma—Mexico City’s most iconic street—where countless giant screens erected solely for Mexico’s matches guide the march from the old town to the city’s financial and tourism hub. Roads shut. The centre grinds to a standstill. Bars teem and restaurants burst. and people are still living off the night’s vividness: the sheer quality of a first-half performance against Ecuador that “has not been seen for generations.”.

Noise is everywhere, street performers loudly claiming space and blind men singing. Even on the subways. the city carries highlights of 1986 alongside the news. as if the past has been pushed into the present by sheer force. This month. the volume is turned up even higher—TVs blare on every corner in the Juarez neighbourhood. and this week feels like the week of belief.

It is visible in the simplest way: a shirt on nearly every back. As businessmen queue for their Guajolota at street vendors earlier in the day. a few football shirts appear; soon. green is everywhere. with “probably one in every 15 people” wearing a shirt on a Thursday morning. Sunday will be something else entirely.

That matters, because it underlines how Mexico’s football success is reshaping more than results. Mexico’s jersey has sold more than any other Adidas merchandise across the tournament, and the team’s run is doing more than entertain—it is pulling the country into a single, shared rhythm.

Just before the last-16 door opens, Mexico’s record is already difficult to ignore. Mexico are said to have won 10 of 12 matches since the doubts and bruises began shifting. They also have not conceded a goal at the World Cup. even as observers admit questions remain—particularly around errors from defender Cesar Montes. and the difficulty of keeping Harry Kane at bay.

The storyline of that rise has its own human origin: optimism started with the tears of Raul Jimenez. His goal against South Africa came after he had suffered a fractured skull. with an outpouring that followed not only the comeback but the recent death of his father. From there, the momentum kept building.

Around the team, Jimenez is framed as “The Wolf of Tepeji,” a figure who embodies a sudden surge in quality. There is also the memory of the perilous situation described as “code red” after he clashed with Arsenal’s David Luiz in 2020. and his headband—both physical and symbolic—has become part of the emotional vocabulary of this campaign.

Footballers talk in numbers, but the city talks in meaning. Jimenez is more than a triumph over adversity for Aguirre. The 35-year-old is described as the crucial link: holding up play, bringing youngsters into the action, and carrying the burden of what this run demands.

By scoring against Ecuador, Jimenez became the second most-prolific goalscorer in Mexico’s history. He finished ahead of the great Jared Borgetti and now sits five behind Javier Hernandez.

Hernandez. formerly of Manchester United and now a Fox pundit. is proving a hit on TV screens as he gears up crowds gathered next to their podium. He is described as outgoing and engaging. and he helped popularise the phrase ‘¿Y si sí??’ — loosely translated to ‘what if it happens?’—in 2018. an idea that Mexico can win a major trophy against all odds. That phrase is now a sensation on TikTok, and it is landing in Mexico City at exactly the right time.

Mexico held two closed training sessions on Thursday and Friday, away from prying eyes. The expectation around the team is edging from belief into something more dangerous: not fear, but hunger. Dangerous expectation? The match will decide.

On Sunday, 80,000 fans are set to cram into the Azteca early and do what they do—leaving England gasping for air before they even start jogging. There’s a sense of fate in the waiting, even if the city’s grief and questions remain unresolved.

As fans and families flow through the capital, the football festival is not confined to stadium walls. Going past Casa De Los Azulejos—the 18th century ‘House of Tiles’ wrapped in ceramic—dolls and their eerie faces continue to appear as people move back toward the old town. In Constitution Square, FIFA’s fan festival stands alongside blue agave plants used as the base for tequila.

Thousands are flocking along Mayo Street to watch Spain beat Austria. Thousands more turn up for the drama of Croatia and Portugal. Riot gear is visible too: seventeen police are in riot gear outside one entrance.

Confidence is also being performed. One local insists Mexico beat Portugal if it comes to it, disparaging Cristiano Ronaldo as he flashes up on screen at full time.

That confidence is spilling into more specific belief, including a promise the city wants to make true: that Jimenez’s record against Jordan Pickford can haunt England. Jimenez has beaten Pickford six times in the Premier League—more than any other goalkeeper.

For those living on the ground in Mexico City’s rush, the excitement is turning into a kind of prophecy. And so the capital has latched onto a young face as well.

Gilberto Mora is a 17-year-old expected to test England. He is described as a teenage midfielder destined for a European move. and his rise is being treated as a coming of age. His display against Ecuador is called a moment that nailed down a starting spot for this one. and the story is that Mexico’s youngest ever player is now their new great hope.

The human backing for that hope is coming from Tijuana. Jorge Alberto—owner of Tijuana—looks back on Mora’s breakthrough year at 16 and describes how crowds reacted to him everywhere he went. In the Leagues Cup against LA Galaxy. each time he touched the ball the crowd erupted—not just Mexico’s fans but Galaxy supporters as well. Against Club America, when he came off the bench, Club America’s fans stood up and cheered him. “Wherever we go. in every city. rival fans applaud him. ” Alberto said. adding that it shows something “very powerful. ” that Mora is already becoming a figure for the whole country.

Jimenez also claims Mora can inspire the next generation, and with that praise comes the pressure nobody in the stadium will soften.

This is the pair the city idolises as supporters prime themselves to line up down Reforma. Yet there’s a detail that quietly underlines the mood: barely any shirts worn by fans bear players’ names. The jersey is not just a product—it is identity being stitched to the present. and Mexico City is wearing it like it means something bigger than any single player.

In a tournament that has already carried Mexico back toward its own question of who it is on the world stage. the last-16 game against England arrives with the capital both alive and unsettled. On Thursday afternoon. four-on-four kickabout games. bass-heavy street chants. and a crush-related tragedy still sit side by side—one loud. one painfully real.

Now the city waits for Sunday. The Azteca will be full. The streets will empty into noise again. And England will step into a stadium surrounded by a country that has learned how to celebrate loudly—and how to fear what celebration can become when crowds surge too fast.

Mexico City England last-16 World Cup Azteca Ecuador Clara Brugada Raul Jimenez Cesar Montes Harry Kane Gilberto Mora Javier Aguirre