FIFA World Cup 2026 Cabo Verde steals the show

• Yamal opens Spain’s account, Salah fires for Egypt and Iran draw Belgium 

Cabo Verde again emerged as the headline-makers on Matchday 11 after thrilling Miami and taking points from yet another FIFA World Cup giant.

Spain, the team the debutants subdued in the opening round of matches, bounced back with a resounding victory over Saudi Arabia, while Belgium and IR Iran ended up deadlocked and facing an uncertain future. In the late match, Egypt outlasted New Zealand taking command of Group G.

Spain 4-0 Saudi Arabia

Luis de la Fuente’s men dominated from start to finish, erasing the memory of their disappointing display in that opener. Wonderkid Lamine Yamal opened the scoring, becoming the eighth-youngest player in history to score at the global showpiece, and Mikel Oyarzabal added a brace before a Hassan Al Tambakti own goal completed the scoring.

While Spain moved closer to the knockout phase, Saudi Arabia now need a result against Cabo Verde to keep their campaign alive.

Belgium 0-0 Iran

Neither side emerged entirely happy with this LA stalemate, which left each of them winless and under pressure ahead of their final Group G fixtures.

Wasteful Belgium “lacked efficiency” in the words of coach Rudi Garcia, while Romelu Lukaku - back in the starting line-up - criticised the ten-man Red Devils for “playing with too much emotion”. IR Iran had plenty to be proud of, but even they will look back with regret on the marginal offside offence that denied Mehdi Taremi a potential winner from a cleverly worked free-kick.

Uruguay 2-2 Cabo Verde

Game of the day was played out in Florida as another of the section’s former champions floundered against Cabo Verde. Having shut out Spain in their opener, the Tubarões Azuis (Blue Sharks) showed their attacking teeth against Uruguay, opening the scoring with a stunning Kevin Pina free-kick before battling back to snatch an unlikely draw in a breathless second half.

With these sides locked together on two points, just one ahead of Saudi Arabia and two adrift of Spain, Group H seems set to go down to the wire.

New Zealand 1-3 Egypt

Mohamed Salah had his moment. The Egypt captain not only scored the winning goal against New Zealand, but became the first Egyptian to score in two editions of the global showpiece. More importantly, he propelled the Pharaohs’ to their first World Cup victory – fully 92 years and 25 days after their first appearance in this competition.

With Iran and Belgium drawing earlier in the day, Egypt now head into the last group stage match with a two- point lead in Group G.

Stats

At 18 years and 343 days old, Lamine Yamal became the eighth-youngest goalscorer in World Cup history, moving ahead of a certain Lionel Messi (18 years, 357 days) in the top 10.

Miami staged the first World Cup match involving two players over the age of 40: goalkeepers Vozinha (40 years, 18 days) and Fernando Muslera (40 years, 5 days) of Cabo Verde and Uruguay, respectively.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh became just the second IR Iran player, after Ehsan Hajisafi, to play in four separate World Cup editions.

Maxi Araujo became the first Uruguay player to score in his first two World Cup appearances since Juan Hohberg in 1954.

Mohamed Salah became the oldest player to score for Egypt at 34 years and 6 days, surpassing Magdy Abdelghany who was 30 years and 320 days old when he netted against the Netherlands in 1990.