Seconds after tying Saudi Arabia 0-0 on Friday night, players from Cape Verde, the third-smallest nation to ever play in the World Cup, huddled around a phone and waited for the end of Spain’s win over Uruguay to go final for the dream to be real.
Would the biggest underdog story of the 2026 World Cup continue for at least one more game?
The answer was yes. And, somehow, Cape Verde is now an even bigger underdog.
Thanks to a group stage campaign that included no wins and — most importantly — no losses, Cape Verde finished second in Group H to Spain on Friday night. The three points Cape Verde earned from its three draws were enough to beat Uruguay, the inaugural World Cup winners, and Saudi Arabia, the country that upset Lionel Messi and Argentina to open the 2022 World Cup.
Now officially the smallest nation to make the knockout rounds of the World Cup, Cape Verde has captured the world over the past two weeks. And, somehow, it’ll be on an even bigger stage on July 3, when it meets Messi and Argentina in Miami in the Round of 32.
World Cup schedule | Group schedule, results | Standings
Yes, making the knockout rounds of the World Cup is easier than ever this year. The tournament was expanded from 32 to 48 and the knockout round field size was doubled from 16 to 32.
But it’s not like Cape Verde has snuck through to the Round of 32 as a third-place team in an easy group. After all, it tied Spain 0-0 to open the World Cup as goalkeeper Vozinha became the first breakout star of the tournament.
Vozinha made seven saves in that draw as Spain attempted 27 shots and had the ball nearly 75% of the time. If you go by the expected goals metric, which calculates how many goals a team could have scored based on the quality of its chances, Spain should have scored at least twice.
Before the game, Vozinha had 50,000 Instagram followers. He’s now about to hit 17 million. And, most importantly, his mother was able to travel to the United States to see her son play after she was unable to be at the first game.
Vozinha’s fame isn’t the only improbable path on the team, either. Center back Roberto Lopes, who plays just ahead of Vozinha in defense, was recruited to the team via LinkedIn. And it took multiple messages for Lopes to take that recruitment seriously.
Former manager Rui Aguas sent Lopes a message in 2018 inquiring about his interest in playing for Cape Verde. Lopes’ father is from Cape Verde and he hadn’t yet represented a country internationally.
However, the message was in Portuguese, so Lopes ignored it since he didn’t speak it. Months later, Aguas sent another one in English.
In 2019, Lopes made his Cape Verde debut.
Though Cape Verde’s worldwide rise has been meteoric, it’s been building for years in Africa. In 2022, Cape Verde missed out on the final round of African qualifying by just two points after finishing well off the pace in 2018.
Ahead of 2026, Cape Verde took care of business before the playoffs began. With group winners automatically advancing to the World Cup, Cape Verde outscored eight-time World Cup participant Cameroon by four points in its group.
But African sides have long been overlooked in the World Cup. In 2022, Morocco became the first team from the continent to make the semifinals and just the fourth country to make a quarterfinal appearance.
This year, as many as eight African teams can qualify for the Round of 32.
Cape Verde’s chances of matching Morocco or even Cameroon, Ghana or Senegal as a quarterfinalist are incredibly slim. After all, Messi is still playing like one of the best players in the world and Argentina looks primed for another deep tournament run. But that’s something to worry about a week from now.
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