Mexico first to reach 2026 World Cup knockouts with cagey 1-0 win over South Korea

5 min readUpdated: Jun 19, 2026 10:07 AM IST

Luis Romo's goal helped Mexico pip South Korea to become the first team to reach the World Cup knockouts on Friday. (AP Photo)

They were cagey, at times ugly, but they got the job done. Mexico needed a blunder from the South Korean goalkeeper to get their goal but the cheers from the fans at the Guadalajara Stadium at full time showed how little the method mattered compared to the result. Mexico had defeated South Korea 1-0 and were the first team to go qualify for the knockouts of a World Cup they are co-hosting.

Just under an hour earlier, some of the Mexicans looked rather befuddled at the chorus of boos that came from the same stands at half-time. It was no secret they would take the pragmatic route when needed at this tournament. “At a World Cup, the team that plays the prettiest football does not always win. The team that knows how to compete does,” their manager Javier Aguirre had said in the run-up to the World Cup.

The difference between the first and second halves was the scoreline, which read 0-0 at half-time, and a lack of urgency that accompanied it. There was just one save to show in that first half and an xG of 0.11 for both sides at end of it, which roughly translates to a cagey snoozfest. As they walked off the field to the boos, it would be safe to assume that at least some of those Mexican players were wishing that the South Korean goalkeeper had just dropped the ball at their feet at some point in that first half so they could score.

Well, that is exactly what happened just five into the second half.

Mexico’s Luis Romo (7), left, scored the 50th-minute goal for Mexico against South Korea. (AP Photo)

A cross that came from the right in the 50th minute was headed straight up in the air by Raul Jimenez. Korean goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu came out to collect the ball but it spilled right out of his gloves when he collided with Jimenez and his own teammate Lee Gi-hyuk. It fell kindly on to the feet of Luis Romo, who plies his trade for local favourites CD Guadalajara in the Mexican league, and he made no mistake turning the ball into the unguarded goal.

A half-chance came Korea’s way in the immediate aftermath with their superstar captain Son Heung-min receiving the ball and racing into the box. Once there, though, he couldn’t get it out of his feet and the move fizzled out. That was the last act of the day for Son in that match, he walked off early in the second half as he did in Korea’s opening game against Czechia.

Mexico went back to sitting back the way did after the hydration break in the first half. Only difference being that this time, they were guarding a 1-0 lead. No boos or whistles came from the stands this time. The equation was simple, a victory in this match would confirm Mexico as the group winners and the crowd in Guadalajara was well aware of that. They cheered every time a Korean chance was smothered, and even more when the ball was brought out for increasingly rare counter-attacks.

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The biggest cheer of all, apart from the one that came with the full-time whistle, came in the 87th minute when Mexican goalkeeper Raul Rangel put his body on the line and protected his side’s lead with a double save.

For all the possession South Korea had – 64 percent in the second half and 53 percent in the first – this was the first, and only time, that they had troubled Rangel to this extent. Eom Ji-Sung’s cross from the left was met by Cho Gue-Sung with a header. It was too close to Rangel, who did well to repel the ball. Cho flicked the ball right back towards goal on the rebound, Rangel was alert to it. He dove to his left from a prone position and somehow managed to hold on to the ball.

Another indicator of the match’s cagey nature, aside from the half-time boos, was the fact that the first corner for either side came only in the second minute of injury time. It was for South Korea and Lee Kang-in sent in a near-perfect ball to Lee Han-beom. The latter, however, failed to turn it in. Crosses flew in from the Koreans after that but the Mexicans were up to the task. The final whistle, in fact, blew when Mexico seemed to have forced their own first corner of the game after a counter-attack.

The half-time anxieties were forgotten. Guadalajara erupted in joyful cheers. The co-hosts were the first to qualify for the first-ever round of 32 in a FIFA World Cup, they had won their group for the first time since 2002. And they had done it by keeping clean sheets in their first two matches.