The upset of the group stage was a game with no goals. Cape Verde — a volcanic archipelago of 500,000, ranked some 60 places below their opponents — walked into Atlanta and held the reigning European champions Spain to 0–0 on their World Cup debut.

At the back, marshalling the shutout, was Roberto "Pico" Lopes: a Dublin-born defender once recruited by a LinkedIn message he ignored as spam. The Blue Sharks defended for their lives and walked off with the most precious point in their footballing history.

Weird & wonderful

Cape Verde's squad is drawn from some 14 different countries, scouted by heritage as much as geography — a national team assembled from the global Cape Verdean diaspora and good enough to stifle Spain.

This was a textbook case of domination without reward: Spain held 74% possession, took 27 shots (7 on target) and ran up 2.1 xG to Cape Verde's 0.2, yet could not score. The chasm between 2.1 xG and zero goals was authored almost single-handedly by 40-year-old debutant goalkeeper Vozinha, whose 7 saves wildly outperformed his expected workload, denying Oyarzabal, Laporte and Torres (who also hit the bar). The 11-1 corner count and 10-1 foul count underline how camped Spain were in Cape Verde's half while the underdogs sat deep and disciplined, never resorting to cynical fouling. With no red cards and only a single yellow apiece, Cape Verde's clean, organised resistance — not indiscipline or luck from a sending-off — earned a historic point on their World Cup debut.