{"id":38480,"date":"2026-07-01T07:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=38480"},"modified":"2026-07-01T07:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:42:14","slug":"mexico-beat-ecuador-2-0-to-reach-wc-last-16-and-end-knockout-hoodoo","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/mexico-beat-ecuador-2-0-to-reach-wc-last-16-and-end-knockout-hoodoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico beat Ecuador 2-0 to reach WC last 16 and end knockout hoodoo"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Mexico beat Ecuador by two goals to nil (2-0) to advance to the last 16 of the World Cup, with first-half goals from Julian Quinones and Raul Jimenez, giving the co-hosts their first knockout-stage victory at the tournament in 40 years.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Mexico forward Quinones gave his side the lead in the 22nd minute of the Round of 32 clash after driving into the box from the left and firing the ball inside the near post.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Javier Aguirre\u2019s side doubled their advantage less than 10 minutes later when Jimenez played a one-two with Quinones and smashed it into the top right corner.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Ecuador dominated possession in the second half but could not produce any clear-cut chances, as Mexico maintained their record of not conceding in this year\u2019s tournament.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Defender Piero Hincapie was sent off for Ecuador in stoppage time for covering his mouth.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The match was delayed by one hour due to adverse weather conditions around the Azteca Stadium.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Mexico will play either England or the Democratic Republic of Congo at the same venue on Sunday.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":38481,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,20],"class_list":["post-38480","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Mexico beat Ecuador by two goals to nil","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38482,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38480\/revisions\/38482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}