Mexico
Manager: Jaime Lozano
Home support and a kind draw make Mexico strong favourites to top Group A, and they should also have enough quality to see off a third-placed side in the round of 32. A tougher test is likely to await in the last 16, a stage that has often marked the end of their World Cup hopes. Mexico's only previous World Cup knockout victory came on home soil in 1986, when they beat Bulgaria on penalties before losing to West Germany in the quarter-finals. But that defeat began a run of eight successive World Cup knockout losses, with the last seven coming in the round of 16. If England, as expected, win Group L and safely negotiate their last-32 assignment, the Three Lions could have too much for the co-hosts and extend that unwanted sequence.
