{"id":497175,"date":"2025-10-13T21:57:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T21:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/497175\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T21:57:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T21:57:22","slug":"island-nation-the-size-of-sheffield-becomes-the-second-smallest-to-ever-qualify-for-the-world-cup-in-historic-moment-but-its-bad-news-for-andre-onana-and-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/497175\/","title":{"rendered":"Island nation the size of Sheffield becomes the second smallest to EVER qualify for the World Cup in historic moment – but it’s bad news for Andre Onana and Co!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MICHAEL PAVITT, SPORTS REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 14:51 EDT, 13 October 2025 | Updated: 15:31 EDT, 13 October 2025 <\/p>\n

Cape Verde have become the second smallest nation to qualify for the FIFA World Cup after beating Eswatini 3-0 to book their place at next year’s tournament.<\/p>\n

The island nation knew that victory would secure their World Cup spot heading into the match.<\/p>\n

Goals from\u00a0Dailon Livramento and\u00a0Willy Semedo either side of half-time saw the team close on the\u00a0historic accomplishment.<\/p>\n

A third goal from defender Stopira in second half stoppage time sealed the 3-0 victory to start celebrations at their national stadium.<\/p>\n

With a population\u00a0524,877 according to the World Bank, Cape Verde is roughly the same size as Sheffield.<\/p>\n

Iceland qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, with the nation having an estimated population of around 335,000 at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Cape <\/p>\n

Cape Verde have qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time after topping their group<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A packed crowd watched Cape Verde beat Eswatini 3-0 to seal their place at the tournament<\/p>\n

\"Cape <\/p>\n

Cape Verde players celebrated after becoming the second smallest nation ever to qualify<\/p>\n

The nation had been part of Portugal until it declared independence back in 1975.<\/p>\n

Cape Verde had not been a member of FIFA until 1982 and first attempted to qualify for the World Cup back in 2002.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The national team, known as the Blue Sharks, had seen six unsuccessful attempts but will now feature in next summer’s finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

The team, coached by\u00a0Bubista, have qualified after finishing top of their group with seven wins, two draws and one defeat.<\/p>\n

Cape Verde had spurned a chance to seal qualification last week after drawing 3-3 against Libya, but got over the line with victory on Monday.<\/p>\n

The result saw them finish four points clear of Cameroon, who have the record for most appearances at the World Cup by an African nation with eight.<\/p>\n

Cape Verde had shown improvement in recent years by qualifying for the African Cup of Nations on four occasions.<\/p>\n

\"Cape <\/p>\n

Cape Verde head coach Bubista began the celebrations after taking a 3-0 lead on Monday<\/p>\n

\"Bubista <\/p>\n

Bubista was then mobbed by his players as Cape Verde celebrated the historic achievement\u00a0<\/p>\n

The national team reached the quarter-finals on debut in 2013 and repeated the feat a decade later in the Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n

Despite reaching the World Cup, they failed to qualify for the upcoming African Cup of Nations later this year.<\/p>\n

Cape Verde have benefited from FIFA’s expansion of the tournament to 48 teams, up from 32.<\/p>\n

The expansion ensured nine direct qualification spots for African nations, marking an increase from five previously.<\/p>\n

Cape Verde are the third nation assured of making their World Cup debuts next year, with Uzbekistan and Jordan also qualifying for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cameroon\u00a0now face a wait to see whether they will participate in Africa’s World Cup play-offs.<\/p>\n

The Indomitable Lions, whose squad includes stars such as\u00a0Andr\u00e9 Onana, Carlos Baleba and Bryan Mbeumo, need to be one of the four best runners-up across the group stage.<\/p>\n

They would then need to win two knock-out matches to advance to an additional intercontinental qualifier in March.\u00a0<\/p>\n

World Cup 2026<\/a>Andre Onana<\/a><\/p>\n

Share or comment on this article:
\n Island nation the size of Sheffield becomes the second smallest to EVER qualify for the World Cup in historic moment – but it’s bad news for Andre Onana and Co!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By MICHAEL PAVITT, SPORTS REPORTER Published: 14:51 EDT, 13 October 2025 | Updated: 15:31 EDT, 13 October 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[8000,748,92,393,94,4884,1620,93,16,15,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-497175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-andre-onana","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-sheffield","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115369099569613148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}