Cape Verde’s Historic Encounter with Argentina at World Cup
The smallest nation ever to reach the knockout rounds, Cape Verde, faces Lionel Messi and Argentina in Miami on Friday. The stakes are high as they dream of pulling off what would be the greatest upset in World Cup history.
Despite being one of the fairytale stories of this year’s expanded 48-team tournament, Cape Verde has earned a draw with Spain before squeezing into the last 32 ahead of Group H rivals Uruguay and Saudi Arabia.
Argentina, who breezed into the knockout rounds with the help of six goals from captain Messi, will be expected to swat aside the African qualifiers to move one step closer to their dream of back-to-back World Cup titles.
However, Cape Verde insists they will not be overawed by the occasion. Coach Bubista emphasized that his team earned their place on merit and are focused on advancing past this round.
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni, marking his 100th game in charge, insists his team will respect their opponents but does not expect an easy match given their unbeaten record in the group stage.
A win for Argentina will see them into a last 16 game against either Australia or Egypt. Australia coach Tony Popovic has challenged the Socceroos to make history by winning their first ever World Cup knockout game.
Egypt, with talismanic former Liverpool Mohamed Salah nursing a hamstring problem, also faces fitness concerns ahead of their clash with Colombia in Kansas City.
Ghana, like Egypt, hopes to buck what has been a disappointing start to the knockout rounds for African teams when they face Colombia. So far, five of the nine African teams have been eliminated, with only Morocco making it through to the last 16.
Meanwhile, immediate fallout follows Germany’s last-32 exit at the hands of Paraguay. Jurgen Klopp informed the German FA he is “fundamentally willing” to take over as coach after Julian Nagelsmann’s resignation.