Published on •Updated
La Roja produced a dominant performance against World Cup debutants Cape Verde for 90 minutes, but all to no avail, recording the first goalless draw of the 2026 FIFA tournament in Atlanta’s state-of-the-art air-conditioned stadium.
Cape Verde, a nation of over 500,000 people, held out against Luis de la Fuente’s star-studded team, playing defensively and relying on few counterattacks that posed no major threat for most parts of the match.
The result leaves Cape Verde with a record debut, conceding no goals and earning a point in Group H, something that will reverberate in the nation’s football.
Denied several times by the fiercely determined Cape Verdean goalie Vozinha, Spain kept up the intensity in the closing stages after bringing in Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, but La Roja still could not find space for any major breakthrough in the middle to create clear chances, with shots from mid-range one of their main alternatives.
For his third and final change, the coach introduced Dani Olmo in place of Ferran Torres.
Cape Verde came dangerously close to claiming a historic victory in the 90th minute when Diney Borges headed perilously close to Unai Simon, the Spanish goalie who came easily to the rescue.
His counterpart Vozinha’s masterclass goalkeeping earned the 40-year-old the Man of the Match award, crowning Cape Verde’s remarkable feat.
This 2026 World Cup is being staged for the first time in three countries: the United States, Mexico and Canada.
It features an expanded format of 48 teams, split into 12 groups of four. Each side plays three matches in the group stage, and Spain, drawn in Group H alongside Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay, needs to finish among the top two to advance to the next round.