A nil-nil draw never felt so good.
The third-smallest country by population to ever qualify for the FIFA World Cup, the island nation of Cape Verde pulled off one of the most shocking results in tournament history by pushing reigning European champion Spain to the limit in a 0-0 draw this afternoon.
Making their tournament debut, the first group game for Cape Verde was viewed as a David vs. Goliath scenario. With the 3rd most-valuable squad among all 48 teams, per Transfermarkt, and ranked 2nd in the world by FIFA ahead of this year's event, Spain entered the World Cup as one of several heavy favorites. Meanwhile, Cape Verde were just hoping to avoid the same fate as Curacao—the smallest country in history to qualify—who lost 7-1 to Euro giant Germany just yesterday.
Armed with a country of 525,000 behind them, and a 40-year-old goalie in net, Cape Verde's starting XI stifled Spain for the full 90 minutes. Vozinha, the country's goalkeeper, made 7 saves and gained a few million Instagram followers in the process. Prior to the matchup he had just 56,000 on the platform, but after his heroics that number is now north of 4+ million.
Safe to say we have our first feel good story of the summer.
📸 : Getty
A nil-nil draw never felt so good.
The third-smallest country by population to ever qualify for the FIFA World Cup, the island nation of Cape Verde pulled off one of the most shocking results in tournament history by pushing reigning European champion Spain to the limit in a 0-0 draw this afternoon.
Making their tournament debut, the first group game for Cape Verde was viewed as a David vs. Goliath scenario. With the 3rd most-valuable squad among all 48 teams, per Transfermarkt, and ranked 2nd in the world by FIFA ahead of this year's event, Spain entered the World Cup as one of several heavy favorites. Meanwhile, Cape Verde were just hoping to avoid the same fate as Curacao—the smallest country in history to qualify—who lost 7-1 to Euro giant Germany just yesterday.
Armed with a country of 525,000 behind them, and a 40-year-old goalie in net, Cape Verde's starting XI stifled Spain for the full 90 minutes. Vozinha, the country's goalkeeper, made 7 saves and gained a few million Instagram followers in the process. Prior to the matchup he had just 56,000 on the platform, but after his heroics that number is now north of 4+ million.
Safe to say we have our first feel good story of the summer.
📸 : Getty
