If you’re old enough to remember France 1998, you’ll almost certainly remember Romania
Not necessarily for their football, more because of all of their players decided to dye their hair blond before eventually getting knocked out by Croatia in the last-16 stage.
Perhaps inspired by this (although probably not at all), many were quick to point out that some of Mexico’s players had opted for similar hairstyles prior to their game with Brazil on Monday afternoon.
It hadn’t quite reached the same levels as Romania 20 years ago, but Javier Hernandez and some of his teammates were amongst those to have applied peroxide to their barnets before taking on Neymar and co.
A new look for the #WorldCup knockout stages for Javier Hernandez 💇♂️ #MEX pic.twitter.com/LTfJH4nkM5
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 2, 2018
Lovely stuff, we’re sure you’ll agree.
Plenty of people were quick to make the link to Romania’s 1998 squad…
Surprising tribute to Romania '98 by Mexico today. #BRAMEX #WorldCup
— Duncan Woods (@the__DAW) July 2, 2018
Mexico tried to do a Romania but only a few players got the memo #Hernandez #Layun #MEX #BRAMEX #worldcup
— Dave Winter (@davebwinter) July 2, 2018
Mexico went for a Romania 98 and almost everyone backed out of it.
— Jon Andrews ⭐️⭐️ (@JonCFC84) July 2, 2018
Mexico have done a Romania '98? Approved. pic.twitter.com/WSHbSSSLsY
— Adam Hurrey (@FootballCliches) July 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/jun_jun88/status/1013715331863449600
Ah well…
Mexico had endured a mixed tournament prior to the Brazil game. The followed up an impressive win over World Champions Germany with another victory over South Korea but were beaten convincingly by Sweden in their final group game. Had Germany beaten South Korea in their final game, Mexico – despite winning their first two games – would have been eliminated. We all know what happened in that game.
Sweden qualified for the knockout stages as group winners, setting up a last-16 meeting with Switzerland. The winners of that game will face the winners of England’s game with Cololmbia in the quarter finals in a few days.
