You could watch England play for your whole life and never experience anything like this.Nothing that would feel this meaningful, this exhausting, this stirring, this profound.England are through to the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup, but that is just a mere detail at the end of Sunday’s 3-2 win against Mexico in their Estadio Azteca backyard. Which feels, at least in its immediate aftermath, like the most significant England football result in many people’s lifetimes. And arguably the greatest by an England football team, men or women, on foreign soil.That was clear at the end by the way the England players celebrated when the final whistle was blown, with 101 minutes on the clock. Half the team collapsed to the floor. The substitutes burst onto the pitch. Reece James gleefully peeled a shattered Ezri Konsa — one of the night’s many heroes — up from the grass.Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic appDan Burn, a man people thought was just on this trip for his personality, looked like he barely knew where to run, after producing one of the great England substitute cameos. The players celebrated as if they had won the World Cup. And if they had won the World Cup, would it have looked so different from this?When the squad all linked arms together afterwards, facing the 5,000 England fans, they did not just stand awkwardly to attention for the increasingly religious singing of Wonderwall. They ran all the way over, physically empty but bursting with pride, and hurdled the advertising boards to get close. Jordan Henderson even slipped over one, landed awkwardly on his wrist, and had to be taken away on a stretcher.When captain Harry Kane gave his post-match interviews, he could not even get his words out, sounding like a teenager who had lost their voice at their first music festival.England captain Harry Kane could barely speak at the end of an absorbing game (Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)So why did it feel this special? Especially against a team who — in terms of player quality — England should have been better than. The real magic is that this was an underdog victory, 10 men with their backs to the wall following Jarell Quansah’s sending off early in the second half, built on togetherness, spirit and calmness under pressure.No England team have taken the field under such a weight of circumstances. It felt as if everything in the air was against them. The heavy history, the ghosts of 1986 in this arena and Diego Maradona’s Hand of God, the unique atmosphere, louder than anything you have ever heard in your life, and then louder than that. The power that only a World Cup can bring, when a city of more than 20 million people pour their hearts into one team.Many of these England players have won trophies around Europe at club level, played in the World Cups in Russia and Qatar. But this — a bouncing, pulsing Azteca — was a final frontier.On top of all of that, even the air itself here, lighter, thinner, harder to breathe, was in Mexico’s favour.England only arrived on Friday night, with no real time to adapt. And yet they still kept finding reserves within themselves, somehow keeping the brains and bodies going through two hours of drama.And as if all of that was not enough, torrential rain and thunderstorms delayed kick-off by one hour, only adding to the feeling of historic significance. It made you wonder whether this was Tlaloc, the Aztec rain god, the roar of the Earth, all bulging eyes, jaguar fangs and feathered crown, gathering up the air stored in the mountains and pouring it out for maximum mischief.England head coach Thomas Tuchel had wanted to play a patient, mechanical game, quieten the crowd, adjust to the altitude, quell the magic with science. And England started well, sitting compact, having patient possession.Thomas Tuchel clenches his fists at full time as England players race onto the pitch (Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)They contained Mexico’s pressure, then hit them with the most thrilling one-two punch you will see. Two incisive attacks, as fast as Tlaloc’s lightning, both ending with Jude Bellingham converting into an empty net.It felt, in that moment, like a triumph of England’s precision engineering. Who cares about chaos, noise and ghosts when you can master the geometry and physics of the sport like that? Why should England worry about anyone when they have Bellingham and Kane together, playing like gods?But England let Mexico back in. They switched off at two up, conceded one goal and the ground was suddenly, implausibly, louder than it had been all night. Only Jordan Pickford, once again at the heart of a historic England performance, kept them level.And once unleashed, England could not keep the chaos at bay. Quansah lunged into a tackle on Jesus Gallardo, provoking a huge row between the respective benches and a belated VAR-tinged red card. England were wounded, and even after Kane scored a penalty, they still had to defend for the rest of the night with 10 exhausted men. When a tired Kane gave away a penalty at the other end, Raul Jimenez made it 3-2.John Stones was already on, and Djed Spence and Burn joined him in a back five. Konsa moved across to right-back. Their challenge to Mexico was simple: get around us if you can. What followed was one of the most remarkable passages for England at a World Cup. A spell of football that aged every England fan by decades, as Mexico flung cross after cross into the box.So much has been spoken about ‘brotherhood’ among this squad in the past few weeks, a word that does not always mean as much as you want it to. But if you want to know why Tuchel keeps saying it, and whether it counts for anything, re-watch the climax of this match.The way the England players worked for each other, fought for each other, doing everything together to keep Mexico out. Konsa and Stones blocked every cross. Burn stuck his head where a rational person would not, heading away a Jimenez bicycle kick. Spence scurried, hassled, tackled and was never beaten. The unity between the England players, the shared purpose, was the only thing keeping them in the game.It is impossible to rank or discriminate between the efforts of the England players. Anthony Gordon has not been mentioned in this article yet but he ran all night and never gave Mexico a second of rest.And yet it felt right that Pickford was the man who kept England in it in the first half and who ushered them through those final minutes. The Everton goalkeeper never once looked bothered or shaken as he ran the clock down at the end.Jordan Pickford was magnificent throughout (Michael Regan – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)He was the hero eight years ago when England beat Colombia on penalties in Moscow at this stage of the 2018 World Cup. Before this game, that was the greatest England men’s team victory in the modern era. This one has supplanted it. And the only way it might be beaten is if England surpass the semi-final of that tournament, then lift the trophy.That is what Tuchel has always aimed for, but only after this will people start to believe him.He said that this occasion made him feel alive, and he has never looked more energised — devising plans, changing players, doing everything in his power to triumph over the noise, the chaos and the ghosts of the Azteca.Tuchel has always known that football is still ultimately a game played by human beings in the physical world, a game of effort, discipline, geometry, distances and technique. Everything else is just air.