The arrival of England’s squad at their hotel in Mexico City was met not with hospitality but with a cacophony of car horns, chants and fireworks, as hundreds of Mexican supporters attempted to disrupt the team’s rest ahead of Sunday’s Round of 16 clash. The tactic, which had been deployed to unsettle Ecuador earlier in the tournament, prompted the Football Association to request heightened security, with over 100 riot police sealing off the area. Yet behind the perimeter, the noise and pyrotechnics persisted, a prelude to the hostile atmosphere awaiting Thomas Tuchel’s side at the Estadio Azteca.

The altitude of Mexico City – 2,240 metres above sea level – already presented a formidable physical challenge. Tuchel admitted to suffering headaches and poor sleep, while midfielder Jordan Henderson noted the difficulty of adapting within just 48 hours. “It’s impossible,” Tuchel said. The German coach was forced to dismiss reports that his players might use Viagra to mitigate the effects of thin air; a joking remark by Henderson that “the Viagra helps” briefly lightened the mood, but the physiological reality remains a serious disadvantage for a team that has struggled to find fluency in this tournament.

Mexico enter the contest in imperious form: four wins, eight goals scored and none conceded. Their record at the Azteca – 82 competitive matches unbeaten – looms large, as does a national obsession with reaching the quarter-finals for the first time since 1986, when they last hosted. Javier Aguirre, the veteran coach who himself lost a last-16 tie with Mexico in 2002, described the meeting as a “historic match”. For England, it is a return to the scene of Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” in 1986; Tuchel insisted his side are not seeking revenge but to “write our own chapters”.

While England contend with the elements, Brazil confront a different kind of historical burden in New Jersey: they have never beaten Norway in four attempts. The Scandinavians, led by an irrepressible Erling Haaland (five goals in three games), remain a dangerous if defensively porous opponent. Carlo Ancelotti, the Brazil coach, has lost Lucas Paquetá to injury but remains relaxed about the threat of Haaland, noting his defenders “know him better than I do” from Premier League encounters. The five-time champions are also straining to end a two-decade run of being eliminated by European sides in World Cup knockout ties.

The winners of these two matches will meet in the quarter-finals in Miami, a prospect that adds further edge to a day already charged with historical and physical tensions. As England braced for a sleepless night and an oxygen-deprived battle, and Brazil sought to exorcise an unlikely Nordic curse, the tournament entered a phase where legacy and physiology collide with unforgiving finality.