VIDEO SHOWS: CAPE VERDE CELEBRATIONS AFTER QUALIFYING FOR THE 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT SHOWS: PRAIA, CAPE VERDE (OCTOBER 13, 2025) (FIFA – Editorial use only, no monetisation, no resales) 1. VARIOUS OF CAPE VERDE PLAYERS CELEBRATING IN FRONT OF CROWD AFTER QUALIFYING FOR THE 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP WITH A 3-0 WIN OVER ESWATINI 2. CAPE VERDE FANS CELEBRATING 3. PLAYERS CELEBRATING ON PITCH 4. VARIOUS OF PLAYERS WITH FLAGS CELEBRATING WITH CROWD WITH BIG SCREEN SHOWING SCORE OF CAPE VERDE’S 3-0 WIN 5. PLAYER HOLDING UP FLAG CELEBRATING IN FRONT OF CROWD AMONGST TEAMMATES 6. ROBERTO LOPES, KNOWN AS PICO, CELEBRATING WITH “TICKET” SHOWING THAT CAPE VERDE HAD QUALIFIED FOR THE WORLD CUP 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAPE VERDE DEFENDER, ROBERTO LOPES, KNOWN AS PICO, SAYING: “It means everything to me. Since I was a little boy, and I know it’s the same for the guys in the dressing room, since we were all little kids playing football, we dreamed of playing football at the highest stage, and there’s no bigger stage than the World Cup. So, to do this, to be the first Cape Verdean team here, to lift all the people, the nation, to put them on that stage, there’s no better feeling than that.” 8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAPE VERDE DEFENDER, STEVEN MOREIRA, SAYING: “Honestly, I don’t realise for the moment, that it’s just amazing. Like, I can’t, honestly, I can’t explain (it). It’s just a lot of emotions right now. I still don’t believe for the moment (that) we’re in a World Cup. That’s crazy, yeah.” 9. PLAYER WITH FLAG WITH FANS 10. PLAYER DANCING IN CELEBRATION IN FRONT OF FANS STORY: Cape Verde qualified for the World Cup on Monday (October 13), beating Eswatini 3-0 in their last group match to top the standings ahead of Cameroon and complete a fairytale campaign. The wind-swept West African archipelago overcame first-half nerves to win in Praia with second-half goals from Dailon Livramento, Willy Semedo and veteran Stopira and book a first-ever appearance at the finals. They started two points ahead of Cameroon, whose eight previous World Cup finals appearances are the most by an African country. Cape Verde finished Group D on 23 points, four ahead of Cameroon, who were held at home to a goalless draw by Angola. Cape Verde rarely played international football some 25 years ago but now head to next year's finals in North America as one of the nine African representatives. They join Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Ghana who have qualified already. Livramento took advantage of Eswatini's failure to clear to steer home the ball from close range three minutes into the second half while Semedo also had a tap-in for the second six minutes later. Stopira, 37, had only come on as a late substitute as an acknowledgement of his long service with the team since 2008, and put a cherry on the cake with a stoppage-time goal. The island's 600,000 inhabitants had been given the day off to support their team but there was little to cheer in a tentative first half before Livramento scored. After that, the celebrations could not be contained. Cape Verde are the second smallest country to qualify for the World Cup after Iceland, who competed in Russia in 2018. Cameroon will likely advance to the playoffs for the four best runners-up across the nine African qualifying groups but were jeered off in Yaounde after failure to beat Angola whose 39-year-old goalkeeper Hugo Marques made several telling stops. (Production: Stefan Haskins)
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