Players · 2026-07-08

98 Seconds, 40 Years: The Azteca Record Bellingham Now Shares With Maradona

Jude Bellingham became the first player to score two goals at the Azteca in a World Cup match since Diego Maradona's semi-final brace against Belgium in 1986 — with just 98 seconds separating his two strikes as England beat Mexico 3-2.

The Azteca holds a very short list of players who have scored two World Cup goals inside its walls in a single match. On Sunday in Mexico City, Jude Bellingham put his name on it. His two strikes arrived in the opening minutes of England's Round of 16 tie against Mexico — one a crisp first-time finish, the second a composed low drive — separated by 98 seconds, and enough to put England 2-0 up before the stadium had finished processing what it had just witnessed.

The comparison the stat produces is not subtle. The last player to score twice at the Azteca in a World Cup match was Diego Maradona, in the 1986 semi-final against Belgium — a game Maradona won almost single-handedly with two goals in a 2-0 Argentina victory. That was 40 years ago. Bellingham is 22. The link between those two moments belongs in football's strangest footnotes.

England eventually won 3-2 — Harry Kane added a penalty and the team held on with ten men for the final half-hour after a red card for Jarell Quansah. The occasion tested them. Bellingham's opening blitz was what made it survivable. He spoke about it afterwards with characteristic restraint: 'I'm proud of the team for how we dug in at the end.'

England's quarter-final is against Norway and Erling Haaland — a matchup the bracket has been building towards since Norway eliminated Brazil. Bellingham arrives at it with six goals and four assists in the tournament so far, the kind of numbers that bring their own context regardless of the historical company he is being asked to keep. The Azteca record is a line in a book; the quarter-final is what he will be thinking about.

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