By Alex Roberts
The brilliantly nicknamed Blue Sharks have been punching above their weight within the African Cup of Nations for a while now, reaching the quarterfinals within the 2013 and 2023, however in comparison with Cameroon, they’re nothing however a lemon shark.
The breakthrough got here within the 54th minute, when Dailon Rocha Livramento shrugged £100 million+ rated Carlos Baleba off the ball deep in his personal half and drove ahead. Bursting straight by the backbone of the Cameroon defence, he carried the assault into the field earlier than coolly slotting previous André Onana from simply inside the world.
Cameroon struggled to mount any significant response, with Man United ahead Bryan Mbeumo seeing a penalty enchantment waved away and residential goalkeeper Vozinha denying Flavien Boyomo’s stoppage-time volley.
On the ultimate whistle, the stadium erupted as jubilant followers poured onto the pitch, waving flags and setting off flares in wild celebration of a historic triumph.
Sitting on the prime of Group D in CAF World Cup qualifying, all they should do is journey to Libya and win in the present day’s sport. In the event that they succeed, they’ll turn out to be the second smallest nation when it comes to inhabitants ever to achieve soccer’s final stage.
It virtually occurred in 2014, however after fielding an ineligible participant, Fernando Varela, Cape Verde had been disqualified from the World Cup CAF qualifying play-offs. In consequence, Tunisia had been awarded a 3–0 victory (as an alternative of Cape Verde’s 2–0 win), and so they superior to the play-offs.
Paradoxically, Cape Verde had been handed the factors from their March fixture, during which Varela was despatched off, after FIFA dominated that Equatorial Guinea had fielded an ineligible participant. Equatorial Guinea had initially claimed a 4-3 victory, however the outcome was overturned when it was confirmed that striker Emilio Nsue López didn’t meet the nationality necessities.
The ruling additionally had knock-on results for Tunisia, who thought that they had secured a play-off spot in June with a 1-1 attract Malabo. As a substitute, these sanctions towards Nsue’s inclusion altered the standings and denied them development.
Nonetheless, when all was stated and achieved Tunisia completed prime of Group B with 14 factors, with Cape Verde second on 9 factors, and so they had been denied their likelihood to play within the 2014 World Cup in stunning Brazil.
This time round their qualifiers have been rather less fraught with controversy. It began all the way in which again in November 2023 with a colorless 0-0 house draw towards Angola. We’d love to enter extra element however the one factor that occurred was there have been some substitutions.
The subsequent sport towards Eswatini was a bit of extra entertaining. Cape Verde travelled to the Mbombela Stadium and ended up 2-0 winners due to targets from 35-year-old winger Ryan Mendes and 31-year-old attacking midfielder Jamiro Monteiro.
When the ultimate whistle blew of their first sport towards Cameroon, any hope of reaching the event correct felt a great distance off. The house aspect ended the sport as 4-1 winners, and Cape Verde had been despatched house with a lot to ponder.
Bubista’s lads wanted to rally, realizing that defeat to Libya of their subsequent sport would possible finish their possibilities of catching that flight throughout the Atlantic Ocean to the promised land of the Americas.
Centre-back Diney Borges put his aspect forward inside ten minutes, ending off a brilliantly executed nook routine. Jovane Cabral performed it brief to Monteiro, who teed up Patrick Andrade to ship a excessive, looping ball into the field.
Libya goalkeeper Murad Al Wuheeshi flapped at it however he couldn’t fairly attain it. After a bit of little bit of basic penalty field pinball, it dropped to Borges who slotted the ball into an open objective and secured a much-needed win.
It might be practically a 12 months earlier than the gamers met up once more to face Mauritius. With just one win on the time, this sport ought to have been routine for Cape Verde, however it took an extremely tense 85 minutes earlier than Yannick Semedo broke the impasse and earned one other onerous fought 1-0 win.
5 days later Cape Verde headed to Angola. By the point this sport got here round, the 4 targets Cameroon scored had been the one targets Cape Verde had conceded, and when Livramento gave them a 1-0 lead simply earlier than the break after a devastating counterattack, it regarded like it could be enterprise as standard.
No matter Angola boss Pedro Goncalves stated at half-time appeared to work. His aspect exploded out of the gates, with Gelson Dala bagging the equalizer within the 50th minute from an oblique freekick.
Cameroon’s 0-0 draw with Eswatini throughout the identical worldwide break noticed Cape Verde leapfrog them into the highest spot. The Indomitable Lions went on to win the reverse fixture 3-1, within the first worldwide break of the 2025-26 season, however it wasn’t sufficient to regain their place.
Now sitting 4 factors forward of Cameroon, Cape Verde want simply three factors from their ultimate two video games to make what appeared unattainable occur. That’s lots of strain placed on the shoulders of those that would write their names in historical past.
The small archipelago of ten islands boasts distinct cultures and traditions on every, however when the nationwide group gathers, these variations shortly fade, and there are many them.
Finally 12 months’s AFCON, their 25-man squad was drawn from 25 completely different golf equipment throughout 16 nations, together with Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Russia, the USA, Spain, France, Italy, and Eire.
Traditionally, Cape Verdean-born abilities like Nani and Rolando have opted to signify Portugal in pursuit of worldwide success. However this might mark the start of a brand new period, one in every of footballing independence, the place future stars select to remain and shine for Cape Verde.
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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