MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Cape Verde “believe” they can pull off one of the greatest World Cup shocks ever and stun Argentina, according to coach Pedro Leitao Brito.
Cape Verde, the smallest nation to ever progress from the group stage at a World Cup, take on reigning champions Argentina in the round of 32 in Miami on Friday.
Argentina, led by talisman Lionel Messi, are heavy favourites. But the Cape Verde coach, known as Bubista, said his team will be “brave and bold.”
“There’s belief and conviction and that’s very helpful,” he said.
“We will play with courage. We will be bold and fight for the qualification. We want the players to enjoy the match, but to be focused and do everything to go to the next phase.
“Of course we believe. We believe in ourselves and our strengths, our players and our team. We know this will be a very difficult game, but we can hurt our opponent. We are brave and ambitious and we will play to win.”
Messi heads into the tie with six goals in three games at the World Cup, despite not starting the final group stage fixture against Jordan.
He will be back in the team against Cape Verde, but Bubista insists his plan for the game will not revolve around simply trying to stop the 39-year-old.
“We as a team have our own strategy, not only against Messi but the whole team,” he said.
“They are the current world champions and one of the best teams in the tournament. We will play against the whole team. We know Messi is one of the best players in the world, but we play against the whole team.”
Cape Verde, with a population of only 500,000, qualified from Group H after three draws against Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia.
Paraguay have already shocked Germany in the knockout rounds and Bubista is convinced there will be more upsets to come.
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“The so-called small teams have shown they can compete on the same playing level with the so-called superior teams,” he said.
“It only goes to show that the small ones can also face up to the most challenging matches. Argentina will be challenging for us, but we want it to be challenging for them too.
“We are here on merit. In the last three matches we have shown we can compete at a high level. We know the quality of our opponent, but we also have our dream.”
