Football Daily | England’s altitude era defies World Cup history and encourages ‘another shot’

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For Mexico City 1986, Saint-Étienne 1998 and Gelsenkirchen 2006, do not read Mexico City 2026. History told us England simply do not progress at the World Cup in adverse conditions. When the chips are down, the Three Lions crumble … Until now. So how apt it feels for England fans that, 40 years on from their luckless defeat by Argentina at the Azteca – Diego Maradona’s Hand of God and all that – their team found a way to triumph when it appeared everything was stacked against them. The word “altitude” was bandied round the media with a reckless abandon in the prelude to Mexico v England. Journalists trudged dutifully around Mexico City comparing 5k times to their parkrun PBs back home, in some vague attempt to illustrate how tough it would be for, you know, actual professional athletes. We were told this was the impossible job, a bridge too far in the cathedral of Mexican football against the GWC co-hosts who rarely lose there, and who came into the tie on a run of four successive wins at the tournament, no goals conceded.