Everything indicates that the Ecuadorian team will be Mexico's rival next Tuesday in the Mexico City stadium, if something extraordinary does not happen to change the 97 percent chance of the Ecuadorians and three percent of the Scots of facing the Tricolor in the round of 32 phase.

According to the points and results that both teams have had, they are the most likely to be announced as one of the adversaries of the national team led by Javier “Vasco” Aguirre, but according to the coldness of mathematics, the Ecuadorian team will be facing Mexico next Tuesday.

The main surprise was the elimination of Uruguay, which removed Cape Verde from the map as Mexico's rival, which, by tying with Saudi Arabia, moved to second place in Group H, now leaving the scene clear for this Saturday the Tricolor to know whether Ecuador or Scotland will be its rival in the round of 32 phase.

But according to this perspective, the percentage for Ecuador to face Mexico is 97 percent, while Scotland has three percent, which is why it is ensured that Ecuadorians already have reserved plane tickets from New York to Mexico.

So far, Mexico along with France are the only two teams that have advanced to the next phase with three victories in the initial phase, something that has not happened frequently in the other 22 editions of the World Cup.

Only Poland has been able to achieve this achievement in the 1974 World Cup in Germany, Brazil 1986, Italy 1990, Argentina 1998, Uruguay 2018 and now Mexico 2026, which has Mexican fans very excited and with the strength of being able to make history in a World Cup tournament.

The options for Scotland to be Mexico's rival

But in the face of this emotion, the recurring questions in all corners of Mexico and beyond its borders have been: what rival will Mexico have? Will Ecuador touch us? What if it's Scotland?, especially since the Scottish team occupies ninth place among the best third places, but has a chance of becoming the eighth best third place, which would face Mexico.

For this to happen, the following results must occur:

Belgium defeats New Zealand

Democratic Republic of the Congo does not defeat Uzbekistan

Austria beats Algeria by two goals*

Ghana beat Croatia by three goals

*In this match, a tie would classify both

Scotland was barely able to add three points after beating Haiti (0-1) in its debut, but then lost to Morocco (0-1) and Brazil (0-3), which is why, so far, Sweden, Ecuador, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Paraguay, Senegal, Croatia, Republic of Korea and Algeria surpass them.

The panorama of Ecuador

While Ecuador finished in third place in Group A with the victory over Germany on the third date, after losing in its first game against Senegal 1-2 and drawing with Curacao 0-0.

The four points that the Ecuadorians add have them placed in the top of the eight third places along with Sweden, where they will not leave there regardless of other results, which is why they are assured that they have a 97 percent chance of being the rival of the Mexican team.

In the first phase count, Mexico as the host country was in charge of opening the tournament on June 11 against South Africa at the Azteca Stadium. Thus, the building made history by becoming the first to host three opening matches of a World Cup, after doing so in 1970, 1986 and, four decades later, in 2026.

The importance of the tournament made Mexico play responsibly and the generation of 2026 signed a historic performance with three victories in the first phase in something that has not usually happened, but was now achieved by the Tricolor.

This performance so far surpassed what was achieved in the 1970 and 1986 editions, where in 1970 they achieved their biggest historic win, 4-0 against El Salvador; as well as Mexico 1986, when Manuel Negrete scored what is still remembered as one of the most beautiful World Cup goals in history.

But in the end Mexican history was cut short in 1970 when they lost in the city of Toluca with Italy 4-1 and in 1986 in the fifth game with Germany on penalties, also with the score of 4-1. Let's see if the third time is the charm, but first you must surely get Ecuador out of the way.