Mexico produced one of the displays of the tournament to put the hosts to the sword at the FIFA U-20 World Cup Chile 2025™. El Tri ensured they’ll join Spain in the last eight, as they found a 1-0 win over Ukraine.
Ukraine 0-1 Spain
Spain goal: Pablo Garcia (24)
Pablo Garcia continued to stand out as one of Chile 2025’s best players with the winning goal in Valparaiso.
The Spaniards laid siege on the Ukraine goal in the first half and eventually broke through at its midway point. After playing a short corner with Jan Virgili, Garcia burst into the box where he was found by Rodrigo Mendoza. He took one touch on his left before lofting the ball over Vladyslav Krapyvtsov. Matvii Ponomarenko could have levelled the game late in the first half, but his header fell just past the post.
Ukraine had more of the ball in the second half but failed to do much with it. Yaroslav Karaman came close when his long-range effort deflected just over the bar, while Oleksandr Pyshchur had a close-range effort blocked late on.
Spain will now take on Colombia or South Africa in Talca.
Quotes
“I’m very happy with the team’s work. We’ve been saying for a while that all the hard work and effort would pay off, and I’m delighted that the beautiful game has helped us qualify. I think we deserve it. We had a very difficult group stage, I think one of the most difficult in the tournament, but we managed to get through it with flying colours. We had to play against another tough opponent who also gave us a hard time, but thankfully, we’re in the quarter-finals.”
Pablo Garcia, Spain winger
Stat
This defeat ended Ukraine’s 14-match unbeaten run at the finals, the fourth-longest in competition history.
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Chile 1-4 Mexico
Chile goal: Juan Rossel (88)
Mexico goals: Tahiel Jimenez (26), Iker Fimbres (67), Hugo Camberos (80, 86)
Mexico turned on the style in front of a lively Valparaiso crowd to bring the curtain down on their host’s tournament.
Chile almost took the lead when a well-worked move found Lautaro Millan on the edge of the area. His shot was pushed out to captain Juan Rossel who saw his point-blank effort blocked by Diego Ochoa. The hosts were made to pay for that miss shortly after, as a raking ball found Gilberto Mora who laid it off to Tahiel Jimenez to sweep home from inside the D.
Millan stung the palms of Emmanuel Ochoa after the break, with Rossel next to do the same following a dazzling solo run. Just as Chile looked to be building momentum, though, the wind was taken from their sails. Neat interplay on the edge of the box found Iker Fimbres, who fired into the bottom-left corner. Substitute Hugo Camberos tapped in a third three minutes after coming on, and added the fourth when he rifled in a cut-back. Rossel gave the hosts something to cheer for with a rasping drive from inside the box, but it was too little, too late.
El Tri will now face either Argentina or Nigeria in a last-16 Santiago showdown.
Stat
Chile mark the sixth successive host nation to be knocked out in the last 16. They follow Argentina, Poland, Korea Republic, New Zealand and Türkiye. Colombia in 2011 were the most recent host to clear that hurdle, as they made it to the quarter-finals.
