Mexico v Ecuador: World Cup 2026 last 32 – live

⚽️ Kick-off time: 7pm local/11am AEST/2am BST/9pm EDT
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Raúl Vilchis sets the scene from a Mexican perspective, where the curse of the fifth game looms large over the hosts.

Mexico’s World Cup history has been marked by decades of defeats in the first-stage of the knockout rounds. Exactly the round Mexico will be playing in for their Tuesday matchup against Ecuador. And the country is on edge.

Since 1994, Mexico have made it to the knockouts – and then fallen at the first hurdle. The only exception was in Qatar when they didn’t even make it out of the groups. The last time Mexico made it to the now mythical “fifth game” was their quarter-final appearance in 1986, which was also the last time the World Cup was held on home soil.

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