Raúl Jiménez’s brilliant brace earned Mexico a 2-0 win over Canada in their CONCACAF Nations League Semi-Final on Thursday.
There was just 45 seconds on the clock when the Fulham striker broke the deadlock, when he took advantage of a deflection off Alphonso Davies in the box to coolly pass the ball into the corner of the net.
After Mexico survived strong claims for a Canadian penalty, Raúl made sure of their place in the Final with a stunning free-kick in the 75th minute, bending a sumptuous effort inside the post from 30 yards.
We can't show you this embedded content because you've only accepted 'essential' cookies. To view it, please accept all cookies
There was a surprise late defeat for the United States in the other Semi, meaning Mexico will face Panama in the Final this Sunday in California.
Raúl’s fellow forward Santiago Gimenez was full of praise for his teammate afterwards, with the AC Milan man saying: “For me, it’s an honour to play with Raúl. I think he’s a great striker.
“I need to learn a lot from him. We have a special connection because we’re strikers that are doing well in our clubs.”
In the UEFA Nations League, Joachim Andersen played the entirety of Denmark’s impressive 1-0 win over Portugal in Copenhagen.
It could have been more emphatic for the Danes had Christian Eriksen not had an effort cleared off the line and a penalty saved, but Rasmus Højlund's late strike means it’s still a healthy result to take into Sunday’s return leg in Lisbon.
There was a positive result also for Saša Lukić, who played 81 minutes of Serbia’s 1-1 draw away to Austria.
The hosts had the better of things in Vienna, and led at the break through Michael Gregoritsch, but Serbia restored parity courtesy of a Lazar Samardzic effort just after the hour mark.
The sides meet again in the second leg on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Josh King played 67 minutes of England Under-19s’ 2-0 victory over Wales, as the Young Lions got their Euro qualifiers off to a fine start.
England Under-17s mirrored that scoreline as they too commenced Euro qualifying in style against Israel, with Seth Ridgeon playing the full 90 as captain, while Brodie Dair featured for just over an hour of Scotland U17s’ 2-2 draw with North Macedonia.
