{"id":9965,"date":"2026-04-02T06:59:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/9965\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T06:59:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:59:27","slug":"mexico-cannot-hold-the-lead-and-draw-1-1-against-belgium-in-a-2026-international-friendly-at-soldier-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/9965\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico cannot hold the lead and draw 1-1 against Belgium in a 2026 international friendly at Soldier Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mexico<\/a> and Belgium played to a 1-1 draw in the final friendly of the March FIFA international break at Soldier Field in Chicago. Jorge Sanchez opened the scoring for Javier Aguirre\u2019s side, while Dodi Lukebakio later equalized for the European side.<\/p>\n

In the first half, Mexico were the absolute dominators of the game. They controlled possession, neutralized their opponents\u2019 strengths, and created a significant number of goal-scoring opportunities.<\/p>\n

Julian Quinones was the team\u2019s most dangerous player, with several shots and key passes for his teammates. In that context, the opener came in the 19th minute, when, following a corner kick, Jorge Sanchez pounced on a rebound inside the box and calmly pushed the ball past the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

In the following minutes, Javier Aguirre\u2019s side had plenty of chances to extend their lead but were undone by their own inefficiency\u2014a mistake that would later prove costly. At the start of the second half, Belgium<\/a> created their first clear chance and made it count: Dodi Lukebakio scored a brilliant goal to level the match at 1-1.<\/p>\n

For the remainder of the game, the intensity from both teams dropped as the coaches made substitutions that slowed the pace. Mexico ended the March international break with positive results and performances, competing head-to-head with two top-ten European national teams. Belgium impressed against USMNT and secured a draw with Mexico, leaving them in strong form ahead of the World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mexico and Belgium played to a 1-1 draw in the final friendly of the March FIFA international break…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,2732],"class_list":{"0":"post-9965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-mexico"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116333822880271446","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}