Why England vs Mexico World Cup RO16 match was delayed an hour
3 min readUpdated: Jul 6, 2026 05:50 AM The Round of 16 match between England and Mexico was delayed an hour on Sunday due to adverse weather conditions. The game was pushed to 7 pm local time from its scheduled 6 pm start which was around 6.30 AM .
FIFA had weighed moving Sunday’s kickoff to noon due to the forecast but ultimately stuck to the original schedule.
Last week, a thunderstorm over the Mexico City Stadium area had delayed the Round of 32 clash between Mexico and Ecuador. According to a report news agency Associated Press, the storm in the area started two hours before the knockout match was set to begin.
This marks the third major weather disruption of this World Cup, following a two-hour delay at halftime of the France-Iraq group stage match in Philadelphia on June 22.
Ahead of Sunday’s match, England manager Thomas Tuchel has admitted that he suffered a headache and had issues with his sleep while acclimatising to the altitude.
The former Chelsea and Bayern Munich manager said the players could feel the effects during the opening stages of their first training session, but added that they gradually adjusted to the conditions.
“I felt a slight headache through the day, for example. I didn’t sleep as well as the days before, but nothing you cannot handle and that you cannot adapt. The players felt it in the first minutes of the training session, and the longer it went they could cope with it better,” Tuchel said in the pre-match press conference.Story continues below this ad
“Altitude: it is what it is. Home crowd: it is what it is. We have the spirit, we have the commitment, we have the pure will and the glue in the team to overcome these things. We know what is coming. But that is the beauty of it,” he added.
Tuchel said the opening 15-20 minutes of Sunday’s match would be crucial and that if England negotiated that period well, they would be in a “good place”.
“It is not a coincidence Mexico starts their matches strong and aggressively as the first 15 to 20 minutes maybe the tougher. Once we overcome that, I think we are in a good place.”
“The players are kind of adapted – you know about the situation. We will take care of what we need to take care of. We need a strong performance and I feel we will have one,” Tuchel said.
