Who could have seen that coming?<\/p>\n
Spain, the betting co-favorite to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup, opened its tournament with a scoreless draw against Cape Verde, which made its World Cup debut on Monday at Atlanta Stadium. Going into the match, Spain had -1500 odds to beat Cape Verde.<\/p>\n
There have been stunning upsets in World Cup history, but where does Cape Verde’s result against Spain rank all-time? Here are the most shocking results in World Cup history based on FIFA ranking, which was introduced in 1992.<\/p>\n
Russia striker Artem Dzyuba celebrates his goal against Spain in 2018. (Clive Rose\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Russia FIFA Rank: <\/strong>70 The best moment in Russia’s World Cup history. Against a stacked Spain side that was on a 23-match unbeaten streak entering the Round of 16, the host nation knocked Spain out of the 2018 World Cup through a penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw.<\/p>\n Spain took the lead in the 12th minute off an own goal from Sergei Ignashevich, but Artem Dzyuba brought Russia level after converting his penalty kick just before the halftime break. With both sides unable to separate themselves from each other in regulation and extra time, it went to penalties, where Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev became a national hero, famously saving penalties from Koke and Iago Aspas to send his country to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n Cape Verde celebrates its impressive defensive performance against Spain. (Marvin Ibo Guengoer – GES Sportfoto\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n South Africa FIFA Rank: <\/strong>83 South Africa marked the opening match of the first-ever World Cup on African soil with an unforgettable 1-1 draw against Mexico at Soccer City in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n Mexico dominated the first half and sent the host nation into the halftime break with a lot to figure out, and South Africa responded almost immediately with an absolute rocket of a goal from Siphiwe Tshabalala in the 55th minute. Mexico would still manage to play spoiler in the 79th minute, when an unmarked Rafael M\u00e1rquez equalized for El Tri, but for South Africa, it was close to a dream start in a tough Group A with Mexico, France and Uruguay.<\/p>\n New Zealand celebrates its goal against Italy from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. (Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n South Africa FIFA Rank: <\/strong>83 France’s nightmarish run at the 2010 World Cup hit rock bottom when tournament hosts South Africa pulled off arguably the greatest upset in World Cup history at Vodafone Park.<\/p>\n Arriving at its final group game amidst an internal mutiny against its manager, Raymond Domenech, Les Bleus finally imploded, allowing South Africa to take a 2-0 lead in the first half through Bongani Khumalo and Katlego Mphela and going down 10 men due to a straight red card that was shown to Yoann Gourcuff.<\/p>\n Though Florent Malouda pulled one back for France in the second half, Bafana Bafana held on for a historic victory, and France’s tumultuous 2006 World Cup was put to a merciful end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Who could have seen that coming? Spain, the betting co-favorite to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup, opened its tournament with a scoreless draw against Cape Verde, which made its World Cup debut on Monday at Atlanta Stadium. Going into the match, Spain had -1500 odds to beat Cape Verde. There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Spain FIFA Rank:<\/strong> 10
Difference: <\/strong>60 spots<\/p>\n
Mexico FIFA Rank:<\/strong> 17
Difference: <\/strong>66 spots<\/p>\n
France FIFA Rank:<\/strong> 9
Difference: <\/strong>74 spots<\/p>\n