Cape Verde is the most sparsely populated country in the history of the World Cup, whose team reached the playoffs - ESPN

The Cape Verde team has set a world championship record, ESPN reports. At the 2026 World Cup, the team qualified for the playoffs, gaining three points and finishing second in the group. She managed to draw with Spain (0:0), Uruguay (2:2) and Saudi Arabia (0:0). According to ESPN, Cape Verde is the least populated country that managed to reach the playoffs. The population of the island state is about 525 thousand people. Only two countries with smaller populations participated in the final stage of the World Cup - Iceland (2018, about 370 thousand) and Curacao (current World Cup, about 160 thousand) - both of these teams did not make it out of the group. Saudi Arabia took fourth place in the Group H standings. The team scored two points from three matches and left the tournament. Spain took first place (7 points), Uruguay took third (2).

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