The Cape Verde national team set a record in a match against Spain at the World Cup

The Cape Verde national team has made history at the World Cup in its very first match at the tournament. The African team set a record for the fewest fouls in one game, playing a draw with one of the tournament favorites - the Spanish national team. This is reported by TSN Sport.

Cape Verde set a World Cup record

The historic achievement was recorded in the first round match of the group stage of the 2026 World Cup.

During the match against Spain, Cape Verde players committed a foul only once. This is the lowest figure recorded in the history of the corresponding statistics at the World Cup, which has been collected since 1966.

Despite the minimal number of fouls, the African team was active defensively and managed to intercept the ball from their opponents 17 times.

By comparison, the Spanish team committed fouls ten times during the match.

Debut at the World Cup brought the first point

The match ended with no goals scored - 0:0. For Cape Verde, this was the first match in the history of the World Cup.

Thanks to the draw, the tournament debutants immediately secured their first point at the world championship and maintained good chances to compete for a spot in the playoffs.

Spain, which is among the title contenders, could not break the opponent's defense and had to settle for just one point.

What is next for the teams

In the second round of Group H, the Spanish national team will meet Saudi Arabia on June 21.

Cape Verde will play their next match on June 22 against Uruguay.

The 2026 World Cup is taking place in the USA, Canada, and Mexico from June 11 to July 19. This tournament is the first in history to involve 48 national teams. Previously, starting from 1998, 32 teams participated in the World Cups.

It is worth noting that the Spanish national team arrived at the 2026 World Cup without a single Real Madrid player.