Jude Bellingham recorded a brace and Harry Kane scored his sixth goal of the World Cup and added an assist as England outlasted Mexico 3-2 in a round of 16 instant classic on Sunday night at Mexico City.

England played a man down for the last 48 minutes, including 12 in stoppage time, after Jarell Quansah picked up a straight red card, handing Mexico a rare loss at Estadio Azteca.

England will face Norway in the quarterfinals on July 11 at Miami Gardens, Fla. Norway defeated Brazil 2-1 earlier Sunday.

“It’s the best night of my England career and just unbelievable,” Bellingham said. “It was a chaotic game but credit to Mexico. We never underestimated them for one minute and they were exactly as good as we thought they would be. But this team showed character tonight.”

England coach Thomas Tuchel credited his players for thriving in an electric and highly adversarial environment.

“If a team has heart and belief, it’s this team,” Tuchel said. “They did it on pure will. It was an iconic match in an iconic stadium. I have no words. I’m very, very proud.

“The players just refused to give in. On every level, that’s absolutely admirable.”

Julian Quinones and Raul Jimenez scored goals as Mexico fell to 70-3-17 at the famed stadium since it opened in 1966.

“We made three mistakes and paid a high price,” Mexico coach Javier Aguirre said. “They didn’t make mistakes.”

Aguirre, 67, confirmed after the match that he was resigning as Mexico’s national team coach. He had been on the job for 24 months and it was his third stint.

Assistant coach Rafa Marquez, a Mexico soccer legend who played in five World Cups, will take over as coach.

The start of the match was delayed an hour due to fierce rainstorms in the 7,200-foot elevation but the weather was a nonfactor during the intense match.

England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made three saves, while Mexico counterpart Raul Rangel stopped two shots.

Mexico had a 20-6 edge in shots and each side put five on target.

England looked in trouble when they went down to 10 players while holding a 2-1 lead.

Quansah made a sliding tackle at Mexico’s Jesus Gallardo and his high spikes collided with Gallardo’s left shin. The play was reviewed and Quansah was given a red card in the 54th minute.

Six minutes later, England padded their lead. The sequence started with a long ball bouncing into the Mexico box. England’s Anthony Gordon was in pursuit and Rangel came out and took Gordon down and a penalty kick was awarded.

Kane stood at the spot before sending a right-footed rocket into the left corner of the net to give England a 3-1 advantage.

Kane is one goal off the lead in the Golden Boot competition. Norway’s Erling Haaland, Argentina’s Lionel Messi and France’s Kylian Mbappe share the lead with seven apiece.

“It was a crazy game,” Kane said. “Everything was against us and we found a way.”

A short time later, Kane was called for a high kick and Mexico were awarded a penalty kick. Jimenez took it in the 69th minute and slowly approached before kicking a right-footer into the left side of the net for his third goal of the tournament.

While Mexico pursued a tying marker with the man-advantage, England was able to protect the lead.

“We need to take this in,” Tuchel said. “This is Azteca, this is Mexico, it was a crazy, crazy game. We left everything out there, every single one of us.”

England were passive for most of the first half before Bellingham scored twice in 98 seconds.

Bukayo Saka set up the first one in the 36th minute with some nice maneuvering in the attacking area. He sent a cross to Bellingham, who met the ball with a stellar diving header that went into the left side of the net to give England the lead.

Then Mexico were sloppy in the midfield and England came up with a theft and moved downfield. Kane had the ball and sent it over to Bellingham, who knocked in a right-footer to give England a 2-0 lead in the 38th minute on his fourth goal of the World Cup.

Mexico answered in the 42nd minute off a free kick. Roberto Alvarado sent a left-footed boot toward the box and the ball caromed off the leg of England’s Ezri Konsa. It went directly to Quinones, who sent a right-footed shot into the upper portion of the net for his fourth goal.

Earlier, Mexico had a big chance in the 15th minute, but Jimenez’s close-range header was stopped by the left hand of Pickford.

Jimenez also had an opportunity in the first minute of first-half stoppage time, but his bouncing shot was wide right of the net.

“In the end, it just wasn’t meant to be,” Aguirre said.

–Field Level Media