England fans have been scarred by the Azteca stadium in the past. High on the Mexican plateau, the giant concrete fortress was where Maradona scored with the ‘Hand of God’ and dumped England out of the 1986 World Cup. For Mexico, the Azteca is equally significant. Every pundit seems to know this, saying that Mexico has only lost twice there since 1966, so England might as well pack their bags already. But how impressive are Mexico at the Azteca, and how might it affect the England players?
The giant concrete fortress was where Maradona scored with the ‘Hand of God’
It is true that Mexico have only lost twice at the Azteca in competitive games, and they have also had 17 draws, giving them an extremely high win rate of almost 80 per cent. But it is important to note that, as a member of Concacaf (ie, North and Central America and the Caribbean), most of Mexico’s competitive games are against mid-to-low-ranking neighbouring countries such as Honduras, Panama and Jamaica.
If you broaden it out to all 154 games since 1966, including friendlies against better opposition, the win rate falls to 69 per cent. When you look at teams that are consistently among Fifa’s top-ranked nations – Brazil, Spain, Argentina and so on – that record drops to eight wins from 20 games: a 40 per cent win rate.
