England win a classic at the Azteca; Henry and Pete storm the top three

Two Round of 16 ties, two shocks for the leader’s rivals to savour, and the best night of football the tournament has served up. Henry’s England beat Richard’s Mexico 3-2 at a heaving, thunder-delayed Azteca, and Pete’s Norway knocked out Emily’s Brazil 2-1 - a pair of +10 quarter-final bonuses that reorder the entire top three.

A roughly hour-long thunderstorm delayed the kick-off, and once it finally got going Jude Bellingham settled the England game early, scoring twice inside the first quarter before Mexico had properly woken. Julián Quiñones pulled one back, and then it got nervy: Jarell Quansah was sent off, leaving England a man down for the last forty-odd minutes. They steadied it anyway - Harry Kane restored the two-goal cushion from the spot to make it 3-1 - before Raúl Jiménez answered with a penalty of his own to halve the deficit again. England held on. It was, by common agreement, the match of the tournament.

For the table it’s a genuine reshuffle. Henry climbs to 63 and third; Pete to 66 and second. Both leapfrog Ella, Emily and Sophie on the strength of a single deep run - the doubling ladder doing exactly what it’s built to do. Richard still leads on 81, but Mexico’s exit trims one of his six teams, and his cushion is no longer the fortress it looked: Pete is now just fifteen back.

The table: Richard 81, Pete 66, Henry 63, Ella 57, Emily 55, Sophie 53, Nichola 52, Tega 49.

And the quarter-final draw is a family cage match. Pete’s Norway now play Henry’s England for a semi-final place, while Nichola’s France meet Tega’s Morocco - the two owners sitting seventh and eighth on the table, fighting over one of the best routes to the title. Today’s last-16 tie keeps the drama coming: Sophie’s Portugal v Ella’s Spain.

Odds watch

The night has turned the sweepstake market into a dead heat at the top: Richard ~3.71 (26.9%) and Nichola ~3.82 (26.2%) are now all but level, Mexico’s exit having quietly shaved Richard’s price back (-2.2pp) while Nichola’s France sit untouched as joint-favourites for the title (France 26.2%, Argentina 25.4%, Spain 19.7% - still a genuine three-way). The mover of the night is Henry: England into the last eight cut his price from roughly 14 to ~8.98 (11.1%, +3.9pp), the biggest single shift on the board. Pete firms to ~15.2 on Norway’s run but, as ever under this ladder, his six-team spread lags the one big win. Behind them the tail drifts - Emily ~24, Sophie ~38, Tega ~40 - their hopes now pinned to a single team apiece.