Rohan Chowdhury
The volcanic island of Santiago erupted in joy, as Cape Verde created history, becoming the second smallest country to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. Iceland is still the smallest country, who in turn qualified for the 2018 edition.
The small archipelago country off the West African coast, with barely half a million population, defeated Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) 3-0 in their last group fixture of the CAF Qualifiers, and qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026. They topped group D, comprising the formidable Cameroon.
It was a monumental achievement for the small footballing nation that got FIFA affiliation only in 1986. The Blue Sharks, as they are fondly called, recently made headlines with speculations of World Cup qualifications when they defeated Cameroon 1-0 on September 9th. They had only 3 points to win with two games in hand, in October — Libya and Eswatini.
On October 8, in a thrilling encounter versus Libya, in a goal-fest away fixture, they drew 3-3, which meant the October 13th fixture against the bottom-placed Eswatini was a do or die clash. The packed Praia Stadium held their nerves in the first half as it ended 0-0 with multiple chances in favour of the home side.
The deadlock was broken right after the start of the second half, as their star forward Dailon Livramento took the lead in the 48th minute. The Casa Pia striker scored his 4th goal in the Qualifiers campaign. Both of the other scorers, Willy Semedo in the 58th minute and veteran defender Ianique Tavares Stopira in the 93rd minute, took their shirts off in celebration of the historic moment and joined the crowd in the stands. They didn’t mind getting into the referee’s books.
The small nation, with a unique inter-island football league structure, proved their mettle in the Qualifiers. Winning 7 out of 10 games, they finished with 23 points, with Cameroon sitting at the second spot with 19. They’ll have to wait for the other groups and see whether they qualify for the best second-placed team playoffs for a place in the intercontinental playoffs.
With this feat, Cape Verde joined Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco and Tunisia for the World Cup in the United States of America from the African continent. In the list of debutants, they join Jordan and Uzbekistan.
Ahead of the match, the players took a walk through the local market in Praia and interacted with the fans, as a holiday was announced in the country to allow the fans to witness history. The celebrations won’t stop anytime soon. Congratulations, Cape Verde.
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