Thomas Tuchel has framed England’s return to the Estadio Azteca as a reckoning with fate. “It’s karma,” the manager told British reporters ahead of Sunday’s last-16 meeting with co-hosts Mexico, invoking Diego Maradona’s infamous 1986 quarter-final. “Karma will come back for us. We will turn it around.” The remarks, widely reported across English and Mexican media, set the tone for a fixture that revives one of the tournament’s most painful memories for the Three Lions, who have not played a World Cup match at the 87,000-seat venue since that 2-1 defeat to Argentina.

The immediate challenge, however, is physiological. The pitch sits 2,240 metres above sea level, where thinner air reduces oxygen uptake and alters ball flight. Tuchel has been blunt: “It is impossible to adapt physically in four days.” British sports scientists note that acclimatisation typically requires a fortnight, a window England do not have after basing themselves in Kansas City. The squad will fly in on Friday, barely 48 hours before kick-off, adopting a “fly-in, fly-out” approach designed to minimise the window for altitude sickness. Mexican outlets have pointed to the home side’s familiarity with the conditions, while Formula One driver Sergio Pérez, speaking at Silverstone, warned English players not to “underestimate” the breathing difficulties.

England’s precautions extend beyond physiology. The team is keeping its Mexico City hotel location secret, a decision British and Mexican reports link directly to Ecuador’s formal complaint to FIFA after their players were kept awake by noisy fans wielding loudspeakers, horns and motorcycles before the round-of-32 tie. The Football Association has prepared white-noise machines, earplugs and natural sleep aids for the squad. Tuchel acknowledged the likelihood of a hostile reception: “We will expect that. But what shall we do? I expect everything.”

Mexico enter the contest with a record that sharpens the sense of English vulnerability. Javier Aguirre’s side have won all four of their matches at this World Cup without conceding a goal, and across 89 official fixtures at the Azteca they have lost only twice. British bookmakers still install England as favourites, but the margin is narrow, and analysts in London note that the home crowd and altitude are widely seen as equalisers. Mexican commentators, meanwhile, highlight that five of the team’s six group-stage goals came in the second half, when opponents were visibly fatigued.

A place in the quarter-finals awaits the winner. For England, the match also carries the weight of a narrative four decades in the making. Tuchel, who was 13 when Maradona punched the ball past Peter Shilton, believes the stadium owes his side a debt. Whether that debt is settled will be determined not by karma but by how well a squad accustomed to sea-level preparation copes with the thin air and the din of a nation.