STAR FOOTBALL PREVIEW Thurs: Mexico v South Africa

The 2026 World Cup is finally here. The greatest show on earth fires up at the iconic Estadio Azteca on Thursday night – and what a stage for the opener between Mexico and South Africa, writes JOE CITRONE.

83,000 roaring fans will pack out the iconic Azteca as Mexico launch their home tournament against Bafana Bafana – in a glorious twist of fate, the exact reverse of the 2010 opener, when Siphiwe Tshabalala’s screamer lit up Johannesburg 16 years ago to the day.

Under Javier Aguirre, El Tri arrive in fine fettle – unbeaten in eight matches and having thrashed Serbia 5-1 last Friday after back-to-back draws with Portugal and Belgium. They are also unbeaten in their last seven World Cup openers, with five wins and two draws, their only opening-game defeat coming back in 1994.

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Mexico v South Africa
FIFA World Cup Group A
20:00 ITV1

LAST FIVE STATS

HEAD-TO-HEAD
JUN 2010 WORLD CUP South Africa 1-1 Mexico

MEXICO
JUN 2026 FRIENDLY Mexico 5-1 Serbia
MAY 2026 FRIENDLY Mexico 1-0 Australia
MAY 2026 FRIENDLY Mexico 2-0 Ghana
MAR 2026 FRIENDLY Mexico 1-1 Belgium
MAR 2026 FRIENDLY Mexico 0-0 Portugal

SOUTH AFRICA
JUN 2026 FRIENDLY South Africa 1-1 Jamaica
MAY 2026 FRIENDLY South Africa 0-0 Nicaragua
MAY 2026 FRIENDLY South Africa 1-2 Panama
JAN 2026 AFCON South Africa 1-2 Cameroon
DEC 2025 AFCON South Africa 3-2 Zimbabwe

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South Africa, meanwhile, arrive having gone winless in their last three friendlies – draws with Jamaica and Nicaragua sandwiching a defeat to Panama.

Hugo Broos’ side sit 60th in the world rankings, 46 places below their hosts. They’ll park the bus, stay organised and hope for a smash-and-grab on the counter – but at altitude, in that atmosphere, against that crowd? It’s a very big ask.

At even money with starsports.bet, I am backing Mexico to win to nil.

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(JUNE 2026): PROFIT/LOSS: 4.38 points