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Mexico coach complains despite win

Ecuador's Edison Mendez, left, and Mexico's Braulio Luna clash on Sunday

MIYAGI, Japan (Reuters) -- Mexico moved to within sight of the World Cup's last 16 but coach Javier Aguirre was far from satisfied after Sunday's 2-1 win over Ecuador.

Mexico went an early goal behind through Agustin Delgado but replies from Jared Borgetti and Gerardo Torrado put them in a good position to secure a second round place for the third straight time.

They began their group G campaign by beating Croatia 1-0 when Aguirre was unhappy his team did not maintain their performance throughout the game - a criticism he levelled again on Sunday.

"We only played for 75 minutes again. We have to play more. We started really badly and the last 10 minutes were terrible.

"I don't like that. I want to play 90 minutes of good football.

"In this second victory we had to sweat a lot. It was a serious match and it did turn into an uphill battle."

Just five minutes into the game, Cup debutants Ecuador stunned Mexico when towering striker Delgado headed in a cross from Ulises De la Cruz.

Mexico's Jared Borgetti, center, celebrates with teammates Jesus Arellano, left, and Manuel Vidrio after scoring the equaliser

"I felt really bad when they scored because we had talked a lot about how good Delgado was, that he was a good goal-scorer," Aguirre said.

But he complimented his players on recovering to win the match. "That was good for the team. They stayed cool, they kept their order and their patience and that's the reason we were able to turn around the game."

A point from their final game against favourites Italy will be enough to take Mexico through regardless of the result of Croatia's game with Ecuador.

But Italy, a danger at the best of times, cannot settle for anything less than a win after losing 2-1 to Croatia on Saturday.

"We have to play our best match of the World Cup if we want to go to the next round," Aguirre said.

"Italy have to win otherwise their World Cup is over, so we'll have to be very clever, very patient, very strong, very confident. We'll have to play very well.

Listing all of Italy's danger players -- practically the entire team -- Aguirre said Mexico would have to raise their game to be sure of their spot in the last 16 despite getting the maximum six points from their opening games.

"We have these two victories, but in the match against Italy we have to attack and go for the ball. I hope Mexico will play their best match of the World Cup because it's going to be a very hard game."

Mexico are the third team to win their first two games after Spain and Brazil.

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