HOUSTON — A day later than its manager originally proclaimed, the United States punched its ticket to the quarterfinals of the World Baseball Classic.

The Americans got the help they needed from Italy and could start to relax by the middle innings as Italy routed Mexico 9-1 on Wednesday night, giving the Azzurri the top spot in Group B and assuring the Americans advancement as the second-place team.

Italy beat the U.S. 8-6 a night earlier, turning the Americans into spectators as they hoped to avoid elimination. The Italians — fielding a roster stacked with Americans of Italian heritage — finished 4-0 while the U.S. 3-1.

Mexico (2-2), which lost to the U.S., was eliminated from the WBC and from qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The Americans will stay in Houston to meet Canada, which advanced past first round for the first time, on Friday night. Italy will play Puerto Rico in the other quarterfinal at Daikin Park on Saturday.

The U.S., with an All-Star-filled roster, also beat Britain and Brazil in group play.

After the loss to Italy, U.S. manager Mark DeRosa fielded questions about whether he thought his team had already secured a spot in the quarterfinals with Monday night’s win over Mexico because of his comments on a television appearance the next morning.

In that interview, he said: “Ton of respect for Italy — it’s weird — we want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals because Mexico plays Italy actually tomorrow. So, the way the schedule lines up this is an important game for us.”

DeRosa said he “misspoke” in that interview and did not believe the team had already clinched a spot. Now that the Americans are in the quarterfinals, they know they need to win to move on to Miami.

Canada up next

Canada advanced past the first round of the WBC for the first time, beating Cuba 7-2 Wednesday in a winner-take-all game at San Juan, Puerto Rico, behind Abraham Toro’s homer and Otto Lopez’s two-run single.

Brothers Bo Naylor and Josh Naylor drove in runs, Owen Caissie had two RBIs and reliever James Paxton struck out six over 2ª scoreless innings for Canada (3-1), which eliminated the Cubans (2-2) and won Group A over Puerto Rico (3-1). Cuba was knocked out in the first round for the first time.

Canada and Puerto Rico will play quarterfinals in Houston this weekend.

Cuba finished with three errors, and left fielder Ariel Martinez allowed Toro’s catchable fly starting the seventh to fall for a double. The Canadians broke open the game with a three-run sixth inning that included a dropped popup, a foul pop that fell, a wild pickoff throw and a catcher’s interference call on Andrys Perez, whose passed ball led to Canada’s first run.

Cuba escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first when Matt Davidson hit an inning-ending popout off loser Livan Moinelo, but Canada went ahead in the third on Caissie’s sacrifice fly. Toro homered in the fifth on a splitter from Yariel Rodriguez, a 420-foot drive to right.

Cuba scored in the bottom half on Yoelkis Guibert’s run-scoring groundout off winner Cal Quantrill, who allowed an unearned run and two hits over five innings.