Thomas Tuchel says England are ready for 'iconic match' against Mexico

Thomas Tuchel believes England’s World Cup Round of 16 clash with joint-hosts Mexico at the Azteca Stadium will be 'an iconic match' as the Three Lions look to book their place in the quarter-finals for a fifth-straight major tournament.

A second-half brace from captain Harry Kane saw England come from behind to beat DR Congo 2-1 in the Round of 32 to set up the tie.

Now, the Three Lions face the task of playing at one of the world’s most iconic football stadiums against a Mexico team who will have home advantage behind them when the two teams meet at 1am BST on Monday morning.

Tuchel spoke to the media in Mexico City ahead of the game and was full of praise for the atmosphere upon arrival in Mexico and noted the scale of the match.

“It’s even nicer than I expected,” he admitted.

“It just catches you straight away. Once we landed here and saw the excitement and emotions. The commitment of people for the World Cup. I felt straight away that this will be a proper World Cup match tomorrow.

“We knew it before. We are in an iconic place, an iconic stadium. A massive knockout game against Mexico in the Azteca Stadium. It’s an iconic match and a big stage and we feel it.

“People were very friendly, respectful and emotional. Of course, they will support their home team tomorrow. That’s absolutely normal. We had an amazing training facility today. A beautiful environment. Very calm on [the] highest level. So players are kind of adapted.

“We know about the situation. We spoke about it. We will take care of what needs to be taken care of and we need a strong performance and I think we will have one.”

Mexico are one of two remaining joint-hosts alongside the USA after Canada fell to a 3-0 defeat to Morocco in their Round of 16 tie.

El Tri have won all four of their matches so far at this World Cup, defeating South Africa, Korea Republic and Czechia in the group stage before knocking out Ecuador with a 2-0 victory in the Round of 32.

Tuchel was full of praise for Mexico, who have now climbed into 10th place in the official FIFA world rankings ahead of the Round of 16 meeting.

“We know everything about the Mexican team,” the England head coach said. “They are now in the top 10 in the world rankings. They have [had] some good results in the last matches. Not only now in the World Cup but especially since March where they played Belgium, Portugal. Top-tier nations.

“We saw and analysed all these matches. They are very flexible in their approach. They change their defensive formations in the match from high pressure to low pressure. They do this very fluently. When they attack, they attack normally with a lot of players in the middle of the pitch. They love to play their wingers inside. They have a lot of rotations that we are aware of. Never shy to play directly.

“I think we are prepared. We saw the strengths. We [will] try to exploit weaknesses like always, but we are full of respect, but we also believe in us.

“If we analyse Mexico, we are fully aware that we need to put a strong performance together. We need to play the best version offensively and defensively that we showed until now in moments of every match, but tomorrow we will bring it together for a top performance that we need to achieve our goal to beat Mexico.”