Island state qualified
©IMAGO
Huge celebrations in Cape Verde: The African island state secured victory in Group D of the World Cup qualification with a 3-0 win over Eswatini and thus secured its ticket for the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada (June 11th to July 19th). It will be the country’s first ever participation in the finals. After Uzbekistan and Jordan, Cape Verde is the third World Cup debutant at the tournament, which is taking place for the first time with 48 participants. Measured in terms of population, around 520,000, Cape Verde will be the second smallest participant in World Cup history after Iceland 2018 (400,000).
Dailon Livramento (Casa Pia AC) in the 48th minute and Willy Semedo (Omonia Nicosia) in the 54th minute ensured the comfortable lead at the start of the second half and ultimately the seventh win in the tenth game for national coach Bubista’s team. Captain Stopira from the Portuguese second division club SC União Torreense also scored in stoppage time. Last week, Cape Verde played 3:3 (1:2) in Libya after a two-goal deficit, but their pursuers Cameroon moved up to two points.
Thanks to Cape Verde’s victory, the Indomitable Lions now have to go into the intercontinental World Cup play-offs, in which the four best runners-up from Africa compete. Marc Brys’ team played 0-0 against Angola on Monday and is not yet through mathematically. The remaining three African group winners and therefore World Cup starters will be determined on Tuesday. Coach Gernot Rohr and Benin are aiming for first place in the long-distance duel against South Africa. Ivory Coast and Gabon as well as Senegal and the DR Congo are also fighting for a direct World Cup ticket.
Correction 8:28 p.m.: The ranking of the runners-up does not reflect the table with all the games: the games against the bottom team in the group are excluded because Eritrea had withdrawn from Group E. As of Tuesday’s games, Cameroon is second behind Gabon and ahead of Burkina Faso and Niger, who have already qualified. The DR Congo and, at least mathematically, Uganda, which has a significantly worse ratio, could still overtake them. Nigeria, who are third in Benin’s group, still have a chance if they overtake South Africa on Tuesday.