In the early morning of January 10, Beijing time, the African Cup of Nations group stage A began, and the Cape Verde men's football team played against the Ethiopian men's football team. In the end, Cape Verde relied on the only goal in the 45th minute of the first half to win a small victory of 1-0 to win the opening red, temporarily ranking second in the group, this small national team with a population of only 540,000 will impact better results.
A total of 24 teams participated in this African Cup of Nations, Cape Verde and the host Cameroon, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso team in the same group, Cameroon team is the favorite to qualify, Cape Verde team to compete for the second place in the group, must play well with Burkina Faso and Ethiopia two games.
In the latest FIFA world rankings, Cape Verde ranked 73rd, just one place higher than the Chinese men's football team, and Ethiopia ranked 137th, and the gap between the strength of the two teams was not small.
The obvious advantage of Verde's feet allowed Ethiopia to receive a red card in the opening 12th minute and be sent off. With one more man advantage, Cape Verde did not break the deadlock until the 45th minute of the first half, When Tavares scored and finally Cape Verde won 1-0 with this goal, and the whole team celebrated.
In an earlier match, hosts Cameroon defeated Burkina Faso 2-1, giving Cape Verde second in the group due to a small number of goals scored.
Cape Verde is the westernmost country in Africa, located in the Cape Verde Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, with a population of only 540,000 and a land area of only 4,033 square kilometers, which is smaller than 80% of china's urban area, and is a small country.
Many of Cape Verde's most powerful players went to Portugal to play due to domestic economic problems, and eventually joined the Portuguese nationality, playing for the Portuguese national team, including Nani, Nelson-Semedo, Sanchez and so on.
Even so, the overall strength of the Cape Verde team has always been in the middle of the African zone, the world ranking has soared from 180th in the last century to the current 73rd place, just 1 place higher than the national football team, the two teams play, Cape Verde team can at least net than the national football team 2 goals and more, but also can beat most teams in the Asian region. If Cape Verde were in the Asian zone, they could easily qualify for the World Cup finals.