The 2026 FIFA World Cup has reached its business end, with the Round of 16 beginning. With so much happening every day, ESPN India attempts to pick out the one magical moment that defined the day's action.
For Day 24, we pick Jude Bellingham's block in England's 3-2 win over Mexico.
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César Montes, captain of Mexico, must have been sure he was going to score. As Raúl Jiménez flicked a corner towards him at the far post, the score read Mexico 1 - 2 England, the time 45' + 4'. Unmarked, three yards from goal, he was going to make it 2-2, drag an already exhausted England into the break level after they'd gone 2-0 up and that would be it. Everyone watching could feel it in the bones: There would be no coming back from this; the Azteca would take care of the rest.
The almost-mythical stadium -- where Mexico had never lost a World Cup match (in 10), where they had only ever lost two competitive internationals (in 88, mind) -- was already a cauldron of noise and cheer and raucous energy when Jimenez flicked it on, but as Montes took a touch to control the bounce of the ball, the decibel levels spiked impossibly higher. As one, 80,000 screamed, 'GOOO...'
But the 'L' never came. Out of nowhere, a long leg had wrapped around Montes' and blootered the ball away, just before Montes could complete the simplest of tap-ins. Out of nowhere, Jude Bellingham had just saved England.
When Jimenez had flicked it on, Bellingham had been stranded, farther away from Montes than the Mexican captain was to the goal, but the moment he read where the ball was headed (no one else in England white had), he took three rapid steps towards the ball, and timed his half-tackle, half-clearance to perfection. If the timing had been off by just a bit, it would either have been a penalty and a potential sending off, or 2-2. But the pace (and intent) of his run back had allowed him to get within range, and once there, he'd connected sweetly with the ball. No one else could have got anywhere near Montes in that situation (literally or hypothetically): Jude Bellingham had read the danger and quelled it in a way, with a timing, only he could have.
The same Jude Bellingham that just minutes ago had made it 2-0 to England in the first place, two goals 96 seconds apart where he ghosted in out of nowhere to become the first person to score a World Cup brace at the Azteca since one Diego Armando Maradona. The same Jude Bellingham who had been key to England absorbing Mexico's intensity before that -- his dribbles out of danger filled with the kind of audacity and flair that Maradona himself would have loved. He'd been everywhere, doing everything, revelling in the pressure of performing at the grandest arena of them all, against altitude and the cacophony of animosity that seemed all-pervasive... and you'd have forgiven him if he was a touch full of himself, if his head was lost in the clouds.
Bellingham, though, doesn't do head-in-clouds. He may be just 23, but ever since he broke through at Birmingham City before exploding at Borussia Dortmund and becoming a Real Madrid Galactico, he's always been one of the most head-in-the-game-always footballers of our time. There was no way he was switching off on that corner, there was no way he wasn't going to assess the situation and then do exactly what was needed to resolve said situation in the snap of a finger, there was no way he was going to let the pressure of the occasion get to him.
Sure, Julián Quiñones might have pulled one back, the Azteca might have been louder than the thunderstorms that delayed kickoff, his own head might have been filled with the glory of scoring a World Cup brace, but none of it was going to get to Bellingham.
Nothing ever does. The English press might have laid into him before the World Cup ('Divisive soloist', 'selfish star' as per one paper), before the squad was even announced ('Leave Jude at Home' read one headline), questioning his behaviour and attitude, and England boss Thomas Tuchel might have fed the fire with some uncharitable statements -- but it had not changed Bellingham one bit.
For his is the self-belief of players who believe they are them, the main characters, the protagonists who every story revolves around, and he's never going to shy away from it. He still swaggers into matches believing the stage is his, he still demands (and demands loudly), he still poses with his arms outstretched like a hero soaking in the spotlight. And most of all, like the best protagonists, he still delivers when the going gets hard... and that last-minute, last-ditch tackle underlined it better than anything else. Two goals. A goal-saving (match-saving, even) tackle. A man of the match performance in a historic win. The Azteca silenced. Pressure? What pressure?