Mexico end knockout drought with victory over Ecuador

Mexico reached the FIFA World Cup Round of 16 after defeating Ecuador 2-0 on Tuesday, ending a 40-year wait for a victory in the tournament‍‍`s knockout stage.

Julián Quiñones opened the scoring in the 22nd minute before Raúl Jiménez doubled Mexico‍‍`s lead nine minutes later to seal a comfortable win at the Azteca Stadium.

The result marked Mexico‍‍`s first knockout-stage victory since defeating Bulgaria in the Round of 16 at the 1986 World Cup, which the country hosted.

El Tri had lost seven consecutive Round-of-16 matches between 1994 and 2018 before failing to advance beyond the group stage at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Quiñones scored his third goal of the tournament and moved into joint second place on Mexico‍‍`s all-time World Cup scoring list alongside Luis "Matador" Hernández and Javier "Chicharito" Hernández, who each have four goals.

Jiménez netted his second goal of the competition, taking his international tally to 47 and moving ahead of Jared Borgetti on Mexico‍‍`s all-time scoring chart. He now needs five more goals to equal Chicharito Hernández‍‍`s national team record.

Mexico will remain on home soil for Sunday‍‍`s Round-of-16 match against the winner of Wednesday‍‍`s knockout clash between England and DR Congo.

The victory extended Mexico‍‍`s unbeaten World Cup record at the Azteca Stadium to 10 matches. The team has also gone 12 matches unbeaten in all competitions since losing a friendly to Paraguay in November.

Mexico also became the first CONCACAF nation to eliminate a CONMEBOL opponent in a World Cup knockout match after South American teams had won the previous five meetings between the confederations.

Ecuador missed the chance to reach the World Cup Round of 16 for only the second time in the country‍‍`s history, having previously achieved the feat in 2006.

Kick-off was delayed by one hour because of a thunderstorm, making it the second weather-related disruption at the tournament after the France-Iraq match in Philadelphia earlier in the competition.