England at the Azteca tomorrow: altitude, 87,000 hostile fans and an unbeaten Mexico

[Oliver85]

While everyone stares at Spain against Portugal, the tie that might produce the biggest story of the round is tomorrow in Mexico City. England against an unbeaten Mexico at the Estadio Azteca, 87,000 home fans, and the small matter of 7,000 feet of altitude that no amount of preparation truly solves

Mexico arrive on a wave after finally ending their knockout curse against Ecuador, the Azteca has been a fortress all tournament, and their players are openly calling it the chance to play the best game of their lives. England have the deeper squad on paper and paper has historically counted for very little in that stadium

The altitude question is the genuinely fascinating variable, the ball flies differently, pressing costs more, and every England player will be sucking air by the hour mark in a way the home side simply will not. Tournament schedulers handed Mexico a home quarterfinal path and this is the toll booth

So, calls please. Does England's quality travel to 7,000 feet, or is this the round of 16 exit that writes itself? And the side question for the neutrals, is there a better World Cup story available right now than Mexico making a deep run through the Azteca?

[Phoenix56]

The exit writes itself and English fans know it, this has all the ingredients of the classic tournament departure, hostile ground, environmental excuse pre loaded, and a narrative the press has already half written

[Maisie84]

England fan and weirdly calm, the squad depth matters MORE at altitude, not less, fresh legs off the bench in the last half hour decide games like this and our bench beats their eleven

[EdgeLord]

The altitude talk is overdone, both teams play the same 90 minutes in the same air. Mexico's edge is the crowd and the momentum, not the oxygen

[VB]

Tell that to every visiting team that has wilted there for sixty years, the home side trains and lives at elevation, the physiology is real and pretending otherwise is how you end up chasing shadows on the hour

[Badger27]

Neutral answer, there is no better available story than Mexico at a home Azteca World Cup going deep. The 86 nostalgia alone would melt the tournament

[TheGame_Fan]

The knockout curse ending against Ecuador changed this team's whole posture, they have played every game since like men who had a piano lifted off their backs

[QuantumLeap96]

England's real problem is not altitude, it is that they have not been seriously tested yet and the first proper examination of a tournament is always the most dangerous one

[Leopard85]

Genuine question for anyone who has been, how much of the Azteca fear is the stadium and how much is the myth? Fortresses are usually stories until they are suddenly not

[Callum28]

Been twice, it is both, the bowl holds noise like nowhere I have ever stood and the myth does the rest of the work in the visitors' heads before kickoff

[Nina_20]

Whoever wins this gets a quarterfinal with genuine belief attached, which makes tomorrow quietly one of the biggest days of the whole bracket