El Salvador stuns Mexico with 2-1 win

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Eliseo Quintanilla's penalty in the 85th minute lifted El Salvador to a critical 2-1 victory over Mexico in a World Cup qualifier on Saturday.

The result boosts El Salvador's hopes of reaching next year's World Cup finals in South Africa, while plunging Mexico into a deeper hole.

Julio Martinez gave El Salvador the lead in the 11th minute, but Mexico's veteran striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco equalized with a penalty in the 71st.

The top three teams in the group advance automatically to the World Cup finals. Costa Rica has 12 points and the U.S. has 10, and both have played five matches. The others in the group have played four -- El Salvador (5), Honduras (4), Mexico (3) and Trinidad and Tobago (2).

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