Mexico edge towards last 16 at World Cup after Carlos Vela and Javier Hernandez all but end South Korea hopes

South Korea's late goal gives them something to fight for against Germany if the world champions beat Sweden tonight. Mexico deserved their victory. The atacking midfield trident, Layun, Vela and Lozano, are menacingly slick and Chicharito is a scavenger of class. But they look vulnerable at the back and Old Man River Marquez almost gift-wrapped a goal late on before Son claimed some just deserts. 

Mexico belatedly play keepball to kill time and the game. 

Where there's life - he cut in from the right on to his left foot and struck a glorious curving shot that bent in unstoppably at the far post. 

Son with a spectacular left-foot shot. 

Corona crosses from the free-kick towards Guerrero and heads it wide. 

We'll have five minutes added in total and they begin with a Mexico free-kcik on the right for Kim Young-gwon's foul on Hererra. His foot was high and he has already been booked but there is no further sanction. 

Mexico are simply happy to stay in shape now and hold South Korea at bay on halfway. Iain Dowie and Joe Speight are actually there. It must be the distance that gives it the audio a strangely dislocated tinny resonance. Apologies. 

In that context a goal would still be important to them here but they have run out of puff and belief. Will the kimchi be thrown at them on their return if they come away pointless from the tournament?  They got one last time from a draw with Russia and were still given pelters. 

South Korea will still be alive until 8.45 or so this evening and will still cling on if Germany beat Sweden. Their only hope is to beat Germany then in the last group game and for Mexico to do for Sweden and go for a goal difference superiority. Should Sweden get at least a point, South Korea are out. 

Alvarez goes down with an attack of tactical cramp during a South Korea surge up the left that comes to naught.  Eventually he makes a miracle recovery. 

Lee Seung-woo enters the book for clotheslining Hernandez.

While Ochoa hams up his pain, two substitutions are made: Dos Santos comes on for Vela, Spurs reserves alumnus for Arsenal stiffs alumnus. Jung Woo-young enters for South Korea and Moon retreats to the bench. 

A terrible backpass from Rafael Marquezis gobbled up by Lee who has only Ochoa to beat. He tries to take him on down the right but instead of rounding him he backeels it to Son who has a covering defender in his way and can't stab it past him. Ochoa recovers and makes a dive to smother it and Ki lunges in late and starts a  skirmish. 

Ki shoots from 30m and into Marquez. Korea are trying to go for it. Here's Chichrito's goal:

Corona comes on for Lozano who leaves to a deserved standing ovation. 

Lee Seung-woo replced Ju just before the goal. Marquez came on for Guardado just after. Chicharito, whose 50th goal for Mexico that was, takes the armband from his departing captain. 

Lovely counter-attack even if he scuffed the shot. Herrera trips Ki to win the ball back but the referee deems it legal and signals play on. Lozano skates forward at top speed, losing defenders as he moves into sixth gear and approaches the box. He threads the perfect pass to Hernandez to the left of the area and he takes a touch to throw Cho off balance and commit him then shoots past him, the ball coming off the side of his foot, fairly high up with a touch of ankle too.  

Chicharito makes it 2-0 on the break.  

Danger here! And there! Attempts at both ends - Lee Jae-sung's daisycutter is blocked by Salcedo inside the box then Mexico break sharply. Layun sets up Vela to shoot and he swerves it wide of the right post. 

Terrific infield run from Lozano, cutting off the right flank to trap Moreno's long ball over the top. He had crept behind the back four, stayed onside with formidable timing, stunned it and took it towards the keeper. His first effort is blocked and he can't execute the lob to score. 

Kim Young-gwon is booked for his sixth or seventh niggly foul and Mexico move the ball quickly forward from the free-kick, up to Guardado and the captain exploits a fortunate rebound from a block to lash a left-foot riser towards the top left corner but Cho, who has been magnificent, leaps up to push it over. 

Ki lets fly from the right of the box, getting his knee over the ball and thunderfooting it hard and flat at Ochoa who can't hang on but grabs it when it bounces up from his inadvertent pat-down. 

Ju bundles Lozano over 25m out, left of centre. Guardardo takes the free kick and floats it down Cho's throat. What a waste. What a waste. What a waaaaaaste. 

South Korea inquire about a penalty after Moon's cross hits Salcedo in the rib cage with his hnds up by his chest as he threw himself to block. Nothing doing. 

Chicharito's turn to ignore a player in a better position (Layun) and welly a shot over the bar. For  penalty box don, taking that shot on from distance was indulgence personified. 

Alvarez takes a throw-in on the right, throws it infield and it's headed on by Vela to Lozano to bomb on to it and head for the box. Again he shoots when in space and once more he gets under it and spoons it into the crowd.  

Very disjointed so far this half. Do South Korea have an alternative plan? There is no evidence I can discern. 

Mexico kick off and begin to move the ball up the right in stages until Vela cuts in and tries to hit a left-foot pass between Jang and Lee Yong but overhits it into touch. 

Fair enough, I'd say. His arm shouldn't be periscoped up.  

It's not been much of a spectacle so far. Mexico have had moments of dash and verve. South Korea have improved but could do with a broader cutting edge than simply Son. Mexico look vulnerable when balls are chipped over Salcedo and Moreno into the channels while South Korea's full-backs are being terrorised by Layun and Lozano. The pass map shows the greater industry and creativity of Mexico.

Moon yanks Herrera's shirt and concedes a free-kick 40m out, wide on the left. Mexico take it, chipping it out to the right but while the ball is in flight, the ref blows for half-time. 

Moreno blocks Son's shot from the inside-right channel and Salcedo the second effort when the ball ricochets back. South Korea corer which, weirdly given the time, they pass back to halfway instead of bending it into the box. Pusillanimous so and sos. 

Lozano hares in from the left touchline and gives Lee Yong kittens, turning him left and right then speeding past on the inside shoulder and into the box. This is the moment he loses his head and instead of settling for the assist by squaring it to Chicharito, he goes for goal and thrashes a right-foot piledriver a metre over the bar. 

Looking at a replay Son's first touch was too heavy and took him too close to goal. Had he caressed it with Layun's velvety softness he would have had a better angle and stopped Ochoa reaching him. 

A long ball over the top from South Korea for Son to chase exposes Salcedo's unfamiliarity with the position he's in and lack of pace. Son gets there first and takes it on to the byline but Ochoa is alert and slides in feet first to dispossess him, playing the ball into the forward's shin for a goalkick. 

Layun has the beating of Kim min-woo when he cushions a long pass with a buttery first touch, shifts the ball past the full-back and crosses. Jang bails his team-mate out with a clearance. 

Lee Yong is down clutching his side after a heavy fall when he lost his footing running at full pelt and tried to squirm past Guardado. Was his elbow driven into his ribs by the impact and crack one?  No. After treatment he signals he's OK to continue. 

Son will take a free-kick from about 25m after he is tripped. He lines it up for an age, takes a long run up and flays it high, wide and hideously into the crowd. 

South Korea, better than they were against Sweden, are reeling a bit now and first Vela smashes a shot over the bar as the defensive midfielders melted away and then Layun strikes straight at Cho. 

Here's Vela's penalty:

Mexico' breakaway came from the second South Korea corner in quick succession and a missed tackle from Ju, I think, allowed Guardado to dash past. There was no intent in the handball but he did slide in to block on his backside with his hands up. 

Carlos Vela thrashes it sweetly to the keeper's right after some timewasting and Grobbelaar theatrics from Cho. 

Guardado's cross is blocked by Jang's hand from very close range as the South Korea centre-back slid in to block. 

Ki meets the header crisply and bludgeons it towards goal. Ochoa jumps up to tip it over but it wouldn't have dipped sufficiently to creep beneath the bar. 

Three shots in half a minute when Salcedo makes an error in trying to play offside. Salcedo chases back and blocks the first and third of them, Moreno the middle one. The last bounces off the defender for a corner. 

Salcedo careers into the back of Son, an age before the ball they were supposed to be battling for aerially arrives. Free-kick just inside the Mexico half. Moon goes down the right and whips in a decent cross that Mexico scramble away. He needed more support in the box. As Mexico try to work it upfield Ki trips Chicharito and, when penalised, utters a choice Anglo-Saxon expletive that would have him drummed out of chapel in the the Mumbles. 

Mexico corner from the left, after Lee Yong's vital intervention. They take it deep again and Moreno can't get a clear jump at it and floats his header towards goal, giving Cho ample time to pluck it out of the Rostov sky. 

Very good work by Hwang down the left, skipping past Gallardo by dropping a shoulder and accelerating when he had the left-back wrongfooted. He centres the ball and it eludes the keeper and defence. Lee Yong, arriving from the right, gets there first to shoot but Lozano blocks with a bold charge that winds him but saves an almost certain goal. 

Ki hacks down Herrera, the sixth or seventh South Korea cynical but not harmful foul so far. Mexico free-kick maybe 40m out by the right touchline. Vela drives a diagonal into the box and Chicharito meets it by the penalty spot, back to goal, and twists his neck to steer a header wide of the left post. 

The corner is perhaps 30cm too high for the jumping forward by the penalty spot and he catches it on the crown of his napper and knocks it up vertically. South Korea win the second ball and send it out to the left to Hwang who sets off on a 60m dash towards the box. Lozano hounds him all the way, catches up and gets in a crisp tackle. 

Layun takes Kim Min-woo, the replacement left-back who conceded the penalty against Sweden, to the corner flag and tries to round him but can't get past him with the ball and settles for a corner. 

Good skill from Jang, flicking a backheel to turn Lozano and the PSV winger, once diddled, clips his ankle to trip him. 

Lee Yong fouls Lozano again, shoving him over. Layun will take the free-kick, wide on the left, 10m from the penalty box. He bends in a cross that Jang heads clear. 

South Korea have not gone for the 4-4-2 we thought they might employ but Hwang is behind Son in a 4-4-1-1. Lee Yong wraps his studs into Lozano's calf. Should have been a yellow card but he gets away with just a free-kick against him. We've seen some filthy tackles over the past few days. 

South Korea kick off and move the ball backwards to the back four who pass it form side to side patiently, knovk it forward then lose it in midfield. 

Some South Korea players, those that have undertaken national service one would think, saluted their president during the anthem. Mexico fans are belting out their marathon anthem. Chicharito is beaming broadly as he finished. Today's commentators sound as though they are not at the stadium and are doing it off the box. If so, welcome to my world. 

Mexico in their lovely away kit presumably to help the colour blind by eliminating the red vs green confusion. Here's what The Clothes Show's Thom Gibbs makes of it:

Not all of them dressed like this, sadly. 

Have gone seven World Cup finals games since their last victory over Greece at Port Elizabeth in 2010. It's long overdue. 

South Korea Cho Hyun-woo; Lee Yong, Jang Hyun-soo, Kim Young-gwon, Kim Min-woo;  Moon Seon-min, Ju Se-jong, Ki Sung-yeong, Lee jae-sung; Hwang Hee-chan; Son Heung-min.

Mexico Ochoa; Alvarez, Salcedo, Moreno, Gallardo;  Herrera, Guardado, Layun, Vela, Lozano; Hernandez.

Referee Milorad Mazic (Serbia)

And go straight to the result. Who said we're living in a culture of instant gratification?