Belarus vs. Mexico: Winners and Losers from International Friendly
The international friendly fixture between Belarus and Mexico provided a dramatic second 45 minutes and an eventual 3-2 scoreline on Tuesday evening.
After a quiet opening half, four goals were scored in the 10 minutes after the restart before Belarus' Pavel Nyakhychyk scored a late winner for the European team.
Here are all our biggest winners and losers from the fixture.
Winner: Raul Jimenez
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With both of Mexico's starting forwards impressing and scoring in last week's win over Netherlands, the incoming duo had to make a good impression to remind the manager that they, too, deserved regular game time.
Atletico Madrid striker Raul Jimenez hasn't had too much game time in La Liga since joining in summer so the 90 minutes alone would have been a bonus for him, but he scored both goals for El Tri in the second half with opportunistic movement and finishes.
A run behind the defence saw him slide home the opener from close range before a smart move into space inside the penalty area gave him an easy first-time finish.
Loser: El Tri's Defence
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While the attack managed a couple of goals, Mexico's much-changed defence couldn't keep the opposition out at the other end.
Four of the back five from the Netherlands match, plus the goalkeeper, were changed for the Belarus game—and they looked ill at ease, especially down the left channel where Miguel Ponce and Luis Venegas struggled to keep out the home attack.
Conceding twice within minutes of taking the lead was bad enough, even without the various missed chances and the late winner. Goalkeeper Alfredo Talavera, 32 years old but winning only his 16th cap, didn't make much of a positive impression to try and displace Guillermo Ochoa.
Winner: Belarus Boss Andrei Zygmantovich
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Andrei Zygmantovich is the Belarus stand-in boss at present, taking charge of the defeat to Spain in the Euro 2016 qualifier over the weekend after Georgi Kondratiev resigned from his post.
If Zygmantovich wants the job on a permanent basis, he couldn't have done much more to press his claim than pick up a victory here; Belarus were positive from the get-go, created plenty of chances and didn't look at all the inferior side considering their lowly FIFA ranking.
The win over Mexico was a huge boost to a team that has lost three and drawn one—against Luxembourg—in Euro 2016 qualifying.
Loser: Miguel Herrera
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On the opposite bench, Miguel Herrera will have concerns not only over the performance of his defensive players but overall that his squad wasn't able to handle so many changes and pick up a positive result.
This was a game that Mexico, unbeaten since the World Cup exit to Netherlands, should have taken a win from, considering the lack of form their opponents were in.
Tactics didn't change too much throughout the game until late on, though, and the level of play, especially moving from midfield to attack, was lacking inspiration too often and relying on one or two players.
One step back for Herrera and Mexico this time.
Winner: Jonathan Dos Santos
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One squad player for Mexico who perhaps did take his chance was Villarreal central midfielder Jonathan dos Santos.
The younger brother of forward Gio, dos Santos was impressive for most of the game with his control of the ball, link-up play and passing, being able to spread the ball wide to encourage the wing-backs to surge upfield.
He took a fair few fouls and later in the game had less of an impact as Mexico went more direct but had enough of an impact to suggest he has a lot to offer the Mexico team.
