In the early hours of Monday morning, amidst the fiery environs of the Azteca Stadium, England delivered one of their most memorable World Cup performances on foreign soil, besting Mexico 3-2.

The result progresses them to a quarter-final meeting with Norway this coming weekend.

Though every one of Thomas Tuchel’s men can be justifiably proud of their individual displays one player in particular stood out, with Jude Bellingham showing all of the qualities that have garnered him multiple Ballon d’Or nominations.

The Real Madrid midfielder was impactful going forward, not least in scoring two goals in quick succession, while defensively too he put in a 90-minute shift.

Come the final whistle, he was the obvious candidate to be awarded the Man of the Match merit.

Jude Bellingham vs Mexico

Minutes played: 90

Goals: 2

Shots on target: 3

Defensive contributions: 7

Passes in opposition half: 8

It is not the first time this summer that Bellingham has shone for the Three Lions, his instrumental output making light of the pre-tournament debates within the British media as regards to his starting berth.

Against Croatia, in England’s opener, he was industrious out of possession, winning every one of his recorded tackles. Just after the break, a powerful run down the right concluded with a driven shot that ultimately secured his team a precious win.

Moreover, he was statistically England’s best player versus Panama, both scoring and assisting.

Indeed, across the tournament to date, Bellingham has been integral to England’s aspirations and endeavours in the Americas as his impressive numbers below demonstrate.

He is a big-name, big-game player legitimising both labels.

5 – Goal Involvements

All told, Jude Bellingham has scored or assisted 21 times in 53 appearances for his country, a respectable return for a player who has been deployed in three different midfield roles since making his international bow in 2020.

From 48 starts, he has played as a number six twice, in central midfield on 32 occasions, and been given full license to create as an attacking entity in 14 games.

What is interesting is that five of those 14 have been at the World Cup, the Real Madrid man exclusively stationed advanced of a midfield hub of Anderson and Rice/Rogers and this freedom has bore fruit with as many goal involvements as outings.

Only once before has he surpassed this output across a five-game sequence, but crucially two of those fixtures were friendlies.

12 – Shots total (9 on target)

The midfielder’s shot ratio is entirely consistent with his number of attempts for Los Blancos in 2025/26 and, pertinently, for England in recent years.

Two details, however, elevate his output substantially.

Firstly – and most obviously – the heightened stage on which he is registering such figures has to be factored in.

It is one thing to rack up a high shot-count against minnows in a qualifying walkover, quite another to maintain that at the Azteca Stadium in front of 80,000 fervent supporters.  

There is his 33 percent conversion rate to acknowledge, also. It is the joint-highest ratio of any player who has reached double figures for shots undertaken.

Bellingham is not simply firing at will. He has making his attempts count.

8 – Key Passes

Tasked with supporting Harry Kane in the final third and ensuring the Bayern Munich forward is never isolated, it is fitting that Bellingham’s assist was for his team’s captain, a pinpoint cross at Panama’s expense that Kane nodded home.

Elsewhere, there have been seven other key passes – the second highest number, after Declan Rice, in the England set-up.

There has previously been some criticism of the 23-year-old for supposedly attempting to do too much individually, taking matters into his own hands when situations go awry.

His astute distribution for team-mates at the World Cup disproves this notion.

347 – Offers to receive

Further discrediting the perception that Bellingham is not a team player is his tournament-high volume of ‘offers to receive’, a relatively new and fascinating metric in the football data canon that acknowledges when a player makes himself available for a pass.

Doing so on average every 61 seconds, the midfielder provides an invaluable and regular outlet for team-mates, an option surely appreciated by those under pressure from aggressive pressing.

No player in the tournament has done this more.  

Tied in with this constant searching for space, Bellingham’s running is additionally worthy of note, with 34.86 kilometres covered in five World Cup appearances.