Cape Verde has broken the record as the youngest country to reach the World Cup World Cup 2026 news

Tiny Cape Verde has made World Cup 2026 history by defying all odds to become the smallest country to have a chance to win the tournament.

Their improbable run through the group stage, and a third consecutive World Cup title, was ended it’s 0-0 against Saudi Arabia on Friday night to advance in the tournament.

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Keeping the goal in Cape Verde throughout is Vozinha, 40, who has represented his country.

“We are small, but we have big hearts and we are fighters,” said the goalkeeper, who last season played with Chaves in Portugal’s second division.

The island nation on the west coast of Africa, which is starting at the highest level of football, already did Spain the champion of 2010 to make 0-0 – which was surprising only to start their campaign.

They then came from behind to secure a 2-2 draw against Uruguay – the 1930 World Cup winners.

“The team wanted to show the whole world,” said Cape Verde coach Bubista, as he pulled up his country’s flag after the Saudi Arabia match.

“We are proud to have reached this point, we have shown that we are a small country, but we are fighting for what we want to achieve.

Cape Verde’s three points put the team in second place behind Spain, who defeated Uruguay on Friday night to win the group.

Cape Verde will face World Cup champions Argentina in Miami on July 3.

Capturing all three teams’ games does not guarantee advancement to soccer’s biggest tournament, but several teams have done so in the past. Some of them are: Wales in 1958, Ireland and the Netherlands in 1990, and Chile in 1998. New Zealand, however, got three times at the World Cup 2010 and was eliminated.

On the evening of the game, Bubista confirmed that, “Everyone has the right to dream and nothing is impossible.”

The Blue Sharks proved him right, overcoming seemingly impossible odds as this country of just 530,000 people reached the round of 32.

A woman, who had her face painted with the islands’ flag, held a sign that read: “Small Islands, Big Dreams,” a dream that these little people will surely achieve as they continue their exciting run around the world.

He did this with another powerful game from Vozinha, whose success has helped him gain more than 16 million Instagram followers.

He saved first-half stoppage time, grabbing a header from Mohamed Kanno to keep Saudi Arabia level. Another save came in the 66th minute when he jumped to save Mohammed Abu al-Shamat’s shot.

The third came in the 92nd minute when he stopped Abdullah al-Hamdan’s shot.

“There is a lot of good in our national team,” said Vozinha. “Perhaps for many of you, you think that the player from Cape Verde is not enough, but we have come here to show that we have a lot of talent and we have come to compete and our players can play anywhere in the big competition, in the big league.”

A group of shirtless men in the crowd each painted one letter of his name on their chests as they cheered Cape Verde.

But Vozinha had a big image in the crowd of 68,278 as his mother Ana Candida Evora looked on from the top, waving a small Cape Verdean flag. It was his second game in the competition after missing Vozinha’s seven-game winning streak against Spain due to visa issues.

Cape Verde had a chance to score in the 50th minute, but Kevin Pina’s long shot was over the bar. Another chance came in the 74th minute when Laros Duarte’s shot from the center of the box was blocked by goalkeeper Mohammed al-Owais.

The last chance to score came in the dying seconds when Nuno da Costa sent a shot from the center of the box to the left.

But it didn’t matter because just minutes after the final whistle, Spain wrapped up their victory over Uruguay and sparked a wild celebration among the Cape Verdean players and fans, many of whom were crying with joy.

After leading his team to new heights, Bubista was asked if he could have imagined he was running this fast going into the tournament.

“I have always said that soon Cape Verde will be on such a stage,” he said. Yes, it is difficult to have such a prediction, but I always knew.”

Saudi Arabia was eliminated after finishing with two points in the group.

“We were very poor in terms of production, control of the game and production,” coach Georgios Donis said. And one cannot win a game like this. It can be very difficult.