Football: Cape Verde qualifies for the 2026 World Cup, the first in its history

Historic day for Cape Verde! The small archipelago off the coast of Senegal has qualified for the 2026 Football World Cup for the first time by defeating Eswatini 3-0 on Monday in Praia.

Cape Verde topped its group D in the African qualifiers unexpectedly, placing first ahead of group favorite Cameroon, which came in second. Mauritius finished fifth in this group with six points after drawing (0-0) against Angola this evening.

The Cape Verdeans join five other African teams that have already qualified: Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Ghana, which secured its spot on Sunday night.

With around 525,000 inhabitants, Cape Verde, ranked 70th in the FIFA standings, becomes the least populated country to qualify for a World Cup after Iceland. The Cape Verdean Football Federation was only affiliated with FIFA in 1986.

Next summer, they will join at least two other countries making their debut at this level, Jordan and Uzbekistan, in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, benefiting from the expansion of the competition to 48 teams.

To highlight the significance of this event in the small nation of 12 islands, the government declared a half-day holiday so that as many supporters as possible could witness this much-anticipated moment.

Facing an opponent without any professional players, the Blue Sharks quickly took control of the match on the synthetic pitch in Praia.

Eswatini, which lost the first leg 2-0 and sits at the bottom of the group without any victories, valiantly resisted for a period before succumbing after halftime.

With a favorable wind, Dailon Livramento opened the scoring after a defensive blunder (48'), followed closely by Willy Semedo (2-0, 54'), who celebrated his goal by diving into the stands amidst ecstatic fans. Veteran Ianique Tavares, nicknamed "Stopira," even added a third goal at the very end of the match to further highlight Cape Verde's victory (3-0, 90+1').

Cape Verde, which finished last in its group in the recent Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, had a much stronger showing in the World Cup qualifiers, losing only one of its 10 matches, to Cameroon (4-1), which they defeated at home in the return leg last month (1-0).