On the road to the World Cup: Mexico shines and scores, favorites Spain and France stumble

Just a week before their debut in the opening match of the World Cup, Mexico enjoyed themselves and thrashed Serbia 5-1 to the delight of the fans who packed the Nemesio Diez stadium. On the other hand, one of the big favorites, Spain, was held to a 1-1 draw by a weak Iraq. Things went even worse for France, which fell 2-1 to Ivory Coast.

In a festive World Cup atmosphere, Mexico bounced back from an early deficit and went on to overwhelm a youthful Serbia side.

Petar Stanic, in the 19th minute, put the Serbian team ahead. The Mexican comeback was completed with goals by Johan Vásquez, at 34', Raúl Jiménez, at 57' and Luis Chávez, at 90', plus a pair of own goals conceded by Stefan Bukinac, at 45'+2, and Adem Avdic, at 72'.

"The result is a double-edged sword," said the Mexican coach in statements reported by AFP. "Confidence has to be measured, overconfidence is as harmful as lack of it.

A heavily rotated Spain lacks its usual sharpness

A problem that Spain will not have, after its surprising stumble against Iraq with a team in which Luis de la Fuente wanted to test many players and took the opportunity to debut promising players such as Real Madrid striker Gonzalo.

Ferran Torres (16) opened the scoring for Spain, but Merchas Doski equalized (27) in a match in which La Roja seemed to suffer from a lack of experience and a massive rotation in their ranks, with 10 of the team's key players watching the game from the stands.

“It was a day for experimentation and an opportunity to give other players a chance,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said after the match. The coach was not worried, praised the opponent, and warned that in the June 8 friendly against Peru a team more similar to the one that will debut in the World Cup against Cape Verde will be seen.

A "wake-up call" for France

Worse still was the French defeat before Côte d'Ivoire. Rayan Cherki opened the scoring for Les Bleus just before halftime (45'), but the African side equalized in the 53' through Guéla Doué, the older brother of Désiré, a recent European Champions League winner with PSG who was left on the bench for France in this match.

Amad Diallo scored the winner for the Elephants in the closing stages, finding the net in the 84th minute.

This setback puts the brakes on the euphoria generated by a very positive March tour, with prestigious victories over Brazil (2-1) and Colombia (3-1), but this time the image shown by Didier Deschamps's team was much grayer.

"I didn't see us looking so pretty either and now I'm not going to see us looking so ugly after today's game. If we needed a wake-up call, we've had it," Deschamps admitted.