VIDEO: Insane scenes as Cape Verde find out they’ve qualified for World Cup knockout stages | OneFootball

The fairytale of the World Cup so far certainly belongs to Cape Verde. The Atlantic archipelago, consisting of a population of just 800,000 people, have made it through to the knockout stages of the tournament on their debut.

Qualifying top of their group in Africa, little was expected of Cape Verde despite besting Cameroon in the qualification process. They proved the doubters wrong in their opening game though, battling to a heroic 0-0 draw with European champions Spain. A 2-2 draw with Uruguay followed, showing that they very much belonged to this level, and in their final group game, Cape Verde held out for a third 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia.

Cape Verde find out they’re in the knockout stages

Image via SkySports

Their final result left Cape Verde sitting second in the group, ahead of Uruguay on two and Saudi Arabia on two. With Uruguay’s game against Spain finishing after their own though, and the South American side trailing by a single goal, Uruguay could have sent them down to third with an equaliser.

It left the Cape Verde watching the final moments of Spain’s 1-0 win over Uruguay on a phone, before eventually breaking out into wild scenes of celebration.

What next for Cape Verde?

Image via Francois Nel/Getty Images

The Cape Verdean national team, led by veteran goalkeeper Vozinha and captain Garry Rodrigues, will face another dream tie in the Round of 32, coming up against a fellow aging star. None other than world champions Argentina and tournament top-scorer Lionel Messi await them in the next round in Miami. That game will take place on Friday the 3rd of July.

Few will give them any hope of progressing through that tie, but then again, the statistic doing the rounds is that Cape Verde were only given a 1% chance of making it through to the knockout stages in the first place.