Cape Verde’s remarkable World Cup story continued last night as they drew with Uruguay in a thrilling 2-2 draw in Miami last night. The 67th ranked nation in the world, who already shocked the globe last week as they put on a defensive clinic against European Champions Spain, took a shock lead against former Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay, as Kevin Pina scored a free kick from beyond 30 yards, taking a flimsy Uruguayan wall by surprise as the island nation fired themselves into the lead. Uruguay responded before halftime as Maxi Araujo levelled proceedings, before Agustin Canobbio put the two time World Champions in front six minutes into first half stoppage time. Cape Verde’s miraculous tournament continued howver, as Helio Varela scored as a result of a howler from defender Mathias Olivera, meaning the match finished level at two goals apiece; and the permutations mean that if Cape Verde beat Saudi Arabia on Saturday morning at 1am, they will make it through to the Round of 32, to either go through as group winners, where they would play Austria as it stands, or if they go through as runners-up, they would play defending champions Argentina.
Elsewhere last night, Spain were firing on all cylinders as they got their campaign up and running with a 4-0 demolition of Saudi Arabia, as Lamine Yamal showed that his youthful exuberance is key to Spain’s success, as he scored the opening goal in the victory. Mikel Oyarzabal put his poor showing in the first group game behind him as he scored two goals and bagged an assist, as Luis de la Fuente’s men soared to the top of Group H.
Belgium’s poor showing at this tournament continued, drawing 0-0 with Iran in a largely forgettable encounter, and former Liverpool forward Mo Salah inspired Egypt to victory in a tense encounter with New Zealand, scoring and assisting as his country won 3-1. Tonight, Lionel Messi will look to add to his hat-trick that he scored against Algeria last Wednesday as Argentina play Austria, France will look to keep winning against Iraq at 10pm, and the other two games this evening are Norway against Senegal from 1am, and Jordan play Algeria from 4am in California.
