Image source: Alamy Stock Photo
Cape Verde held Uruguay to an entertaining 2-2 draw in a 2026 World Cup Group H match at the Miami Stadium on Monday morning, continuing their amazing impact at the global tournament.
The Blue Sharks opened their campaign with a 0-0 stalemate against Spain last week, and built on that with a determined showing against La Celeste in which they both opened and closed the scoring via Kevin Pina and Helio Varela respectively.
The result leaves the African side level with Uruguay on two points, with Spain (four) and Saudi Arabia (one) sandwiching them in the Group H standings. A win for the Blue Sharks against the Green Falcons on Saturday will see them advance into the knockout phase on tournament debut.
Pina put Cape Verde ahead in the 21st minute of the match, striking an effort from a free kick through the Uruguayan wall and beyond the reach of goalkeeper Fernando Muslera for 1-0 – the Blues Sharks’ first goal in World Cup finals history.
However, by half-time Uruguay had established a 2-1 lead. The two-time World Cup winners levelled the game in the 44th minute when Max Araujo reacted quickest to nod home a loose ball after Sidny Lopes Cabral’s attempted clearance rebounded off the post.
La Celeste then claimed the ascendancy when Araujo headed Manuel Ugarte’s searching cross into the path of Augustin Canobbio to fire home deep in first-half stoppage time.
Cape Verde hit back just past the hour mark, capitalising on a defensive error from Uruguay: Mathias Olivera’s pass was intercepted by Helio Varela, who took the ball past a stranded Muslera and coolly slotted the ball into an empty net to score his first international goal.
The Blue Sharks almost reclaimed the lead shortly thereafter via a Jamiro Monteiro long-range shot that was just too high, while La Celeste found the back of the net again in the 68th minute via Araujo, but his effort was ruled out for offside.
Uruguay (2) 2 (M. Araujo 44’, A. Canobbio 45+6’)
Cape Verde (1) 2 (K. Pina 21’, H. Varela 61’)
Uruguay: F. Muslera, G. Varela, S. Caceres, M. Olivera, J. Sanabria, M. Ugarte (N. de la Cruz 70’), A. Canobbio, R. Bentancur, F. Valverde, M. Araujo (B. Rodriguez 81’), F. Vinas (D. Nunez 70’)
Cape Verde: Vozinha, S. Moreira, R. Lopes, D. Borges, S. Lopes Cabral, K. Pina (L. Duarte 71’), R. Mendes, T. Arcanjo (D. Duarte 46’), J. Monteiro (Y. Semedo 80’), G. Rodrigues (H. Varela 58’), Benchimol (N. Da Costa 58’)
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