By CARLOS RODRIGUEZ AP Sports Writer
MEXICO CITY — Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez scored goals in a nine-minute span in the first half and Mexico defeated Ecuador, 2-0, on Tuesday night to break a 40-year drought without a win in the knockout stage and progressed to the World Cup’s Round of 16.
Quiñones opened the scoring in the 22nd minute while Jiménez added a strike in the 31st minute for the Mexicans, who had not won a knockout-stage match since defeating Bulgaria in the Round of 16 when they hosted the tournament in 1986.
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Mexico subsequently lost seven consecutive times at that same stage in the 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018 World Cups.
In Qatar 2022, they were eliminated in the group stage for the first time since Argentina ’78.
Mexico will play another home match on Sunday against the winner of Wednesday’s match between England and Congo.
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The match started one hour after the original scheduled time due to a thunderstorm.
It was the second match of the tournament affected by weather. A storm during the France-Iraq match in Philadelphia on June 22 caused a 2-hour, 11-minute suspension at the end of the first half.
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More to come on this story.