Day 5: Cape Verde Hold Spain in Atlanta — and Sweden Run Riot in Monterrey

Day five was the day the tournament’s outsiders dug a trench and refused to give an inch. Three of the four matches finished level, the one that didn’t was a thrashing, and by the time the floodlights went out over Miami an entire group had played its opening round and produced precisely nothing to separate four teams. If you like your football decided, this was not your evening. If you like a back line hurling bodies in front of shots — and a goalkeeper having the night of his life — you were spoiled rotten.

The headlines belonged to the debutants and the underdogs: a 40-year-old keeper from the Portuguese second division, a Saudi rearguard that survived a 24-shot siege, and a Belgium side made to work for a point by Egypt. The one team that actually cut loose was Sweden, who reminded everyone what two of Europe’s best strikers can do when they finally click. Here’s the full day, match by match.

Cape Verde 0–0 Spain: the heist in Atlanta

Spain had 74% of the ball, 25 shots, ten corners and an expected-goals tally of 2.16. Cape Verde had a 40-year-old goalkeeper called Vozinha. Cape Verde got the point.

The goalless draw at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium was the biggest shock of the World Cup so far, and it was built on one of the great individual goalkeeping displays. Vozinha — who plays his club football for Chaves in the Portuguese second tier — made seven saves, turning away Pedri, Mikel Oyarzabal and Ferran Torres in turn. ESPN’s report logged his pick of the bunch as a low, full-stretch stop from an Aymeric Laporte header in first-half stoppage time; the broadcaster also noted Torres rattling the crossbar after a Marc Cucurella knockdown. Spain’s frustration was written into the box score, where the only Spanish booking arrived in the 93rd minute, a Pedri yellow that said everything.

Luis de la Fuente kept teenage talisman Lamine Yamal — back for his first action since an April hamstring problem — on the bench until the 71st minute, and threw on Dani Olmo and Nico Williams late, but the European champions never found a way through a 4-1-4-1 that simply would not break. For Cape Verde, an archipelago nation of barely half a million people that only reached its first World Cup last October, this was history. According to Opta, the 65-place gulf between Spain (2nd) and Cape Verde (67th) in the FIFA rankings is the widest in any World Cup match that the higher-ranked side has failed to win, and the Blue Sharks became one of only a handful of teams ever to avoid defeat on their World Cup debut.

The man of the moment was overcome afterwards. “I cried because I grew up with my grandparents and unfortunately they were not here; they died a few years ago,” Vozinha told ESPN, also explaining that his mother had been unable to travel for the game. “I would tell 18-year-old Vozinha to be really proud of himself. I have worked my whole life for this moment.” The football world agreed: prompted by Brazilian broadcaster CazéTV, his Instagram following ballooned from a few thousand to five million within hours of the final whistle.

Sweden 5–1 Tunisia: Isak, Gyökeres and a midfielder with a cannon

If Atlanta was about defiance, Monterrey was about ruthlessness. Sweden’s 5–1 demolition of Tunisia at the Estadio BBVA was the only decisive result of the day, and it announced Graham Potter’s side as a genuine dark horse.

The strange part: Sweden barely had the ball, finishing with 49% possession and an xG of just 1.26. They simply buried almost everything they hit. Brighton’s Yasin Ayari bookended the rout with two long-range strikes — one inside seven minutes, one deep into stoppage time for his brace — while the headline act was the partnership up top. Alexander Isak, named man of the match, scored what reports flagged as his first goal at a major tournament and laid on two more; Viktor Gyökeres scored one and assisted another. Isak fed Gyökeres, Gyökeres fed Isak — the kind of give-and-take that had eluded them under the previous regime. Omar Rekik headed Tunisia level at 2-1 just before the break from a Hannibal Mejbri delivery, but it only delayed the inevitable. Substitute Mattias Svanberg made it 4-1 within seconds of coming on in the 84th minute — Sky Sports timed it at 16 seconds — before Ayari’s late screamer rounded things off.

This is the team Potter was hired, mid-crisis, to rescue. The former Östersund and Chelsea manager took over a winless Sweden last October and dragged them through the playoffs — Gyökeres’s hat-trick beat Ukraine, his late goal saw off Poland. Captain Victor Lindelöf summed up the mood about his front two before kickoff, telling TNT Sports he “wouldn’t replace them with anyone.” On this evidence, why would he? Sweden top Group F; the Netherlands, who drew 2-2 with Japan the day before, are next on June 20 in what already looks like a group-decider.

Saudi Arabia 1–1 Uruguay: a wall in Miami

Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay had 24 shots, nine on target, two-thirds of the ball and a woodwork-rattling Manuel Ugarte thunderbolt. They left Hard Rock Stadium with one point and a lot of questions. The 1–1 draw with Saudi Arabia was the second Group H stalemate of the night, and the second built on goalkeeping — this time from the Saudi number one, named in match reports as Mohammed Al-Owais, who racked up eight saves by WhatsTheScore’s count (Opta logged nine).

Saudi Arabia struck first and against the grain, Abdulelah Al-Amri pouncing on a parried set-piece header to score in the 41st minute — then promptly collecting a yellow card three minutes later. Bielsa responded at half-time with a double change, hauling off Darwin Núñez and Matías Viña and pushing Federico Valverde into a more central role. Uruguay duly suffocated the second half, and the pressure finally told on 80 minutes: a Federico Viñas header was spilled and Maximiliano Araújo bundled in the rebound — only to be substituted barely a minute after his goal. Per Opta, Araújo is the first Uruguayan to score on his World Cup debut since Diego Forlán in 2002.

For the Green Falcons, who have reached the knockout rounds just once in seven World Cup appearances (USA 1994), a point against a Copa América heavyweight is gold dust. For Uruguay, it extended a grim continental trend — Opta noted that CONMEBOL sides had still not won, or even led, a single match at this World Cup, their worst collective start since 1974.

Belgium 1–1 Egypt: Salah’s birthday, Lukaku’s cameo

A note on this one: at the time of writing, WhatsTheScore’s live ticker and stats feed for Belgium 1–1 Egypt had not yet published the goal and statistical breakdown — the page confirms the result and the line-ups but no events. The details below are therefore sourced from match reports rather than our own data, and we’ll sync the match page once the official log lands.

Egypt went to Lumen Field in Seattle chasing a first World Cup win in their history — and came within 24 minutes of it. On Mohamed Salah’s 34th birthday, the Liverpool man slipped in Emam Ashour to drive Egypt ahead in the 19th minute, per Sky Sports and ESPN; one Opta nugget doing the rounds had Salah becoming the first African player on record to register a World Cup goal involvement on his own birthday. Belgium, for all their possession and a Kevin De Bruyne free-kick that smacked the post, looked blunt — until Rudi Garcia sent on Romelu Lukaku just past the hour. Within seconds the substitute had bullied his way into the six-yard box and forced a Mohamed Hany own goal to level it at 1-1.

Both sides had late chances to win it — Lukaku headed over, Ashour fired a rebound wide — but a point apiece felt about right. Egypt, seven-time African champions, are still waiting for that elusive first World Cup victory in their fourth appearance at the finals; Belgium, in transition under Garcia, will want more from a forward line that includes De Bruyne, Jérémy Doku and Leandro Trossard.

The groups after Day 5

Spare a thought for anyone trying to read Group H. Both opening matches finished level, which means all four teams — Spain, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde — sit on a single point with a goal difference of zero. Nobody is top, nobody is bottom, and in the new 48-team format, where the best third-placed sides also advance, even this gridlocked group is wide open. Spain face Saudi Arabia and Uruguay meet Cape Verde on June 21; suddenly the favourites have very little margin for error.

Group F has more shape. Sweden’s five-goal haul vaulted them clear on three points and a +4 difference, with the Netherlands and Japan sharing the spoils on one apiece after their 2-2 draw, and Tunisia rooted to the bottom. The Netherlands–Sweden meeting on June 20 could go a long way to deciding top spot. In Group G, Belgium and Egypt each banked a point from a tight opener, leaving the section finely balanced as New Zealand and Iran get their own campaigns under way.

Four games, three draws, and a goalkeeper from the Portuguese second division trending worldwide. The 48-team World Cup promised chaos for the favourites — on Day 5 it delivered. Full fixtures are on the schedule, the tables live on the groups page, and every score updates in real time at whatsthescore.football.

Sources

Cape Verde 0–0 Spain

Sweden 5–1 Tunisia

Saudi Arabia 1–1 Uruguay

Belgium 1–1 Egypt

WhatsTheScore match pages & data