🚨🗣️ Leo Messi: "We're not just a group of individually outstanding players; we are a cohesive team. And this is what this national team has been proving for a long time. And as I've said time and again, this group fights and competes until the very last moment.
Today, set pieces played a very important role. We had scored from them in previous matches as well, and in matchups like these, they are decisive.
We have players who excel in aerial play, and not just Cuti Romero or Lisandro Martínez or Nico González or Alexis Mac Allister.
In fact, we have many players who dominate high balls, and today we succeeded in capitalizing on that, and it will be important to maintain our strength in this aspect.
We've been working on set pieces for a long time, both offensively and defensively, regardless of whether we score from them or not. And in a tournament like the World Cup, this aspect is of utmost importance, and today's match proved that."
🌎🇨🇻 OFFICIAL: Cape Verde are OUT of the 2026 World Cup.
One of the most emotional, beautiful, proud teams to see in history of this competition.
500k population, a big heart. What a game, what a team.
🚨 Leo Messi: "Honestly, we already knew this was going to be a very difficult match. It wasn’t a coincidence that this team didn’t lose to Spain or Uruguay.
"Scoring the first goal was the hardest part, and we thought it would help us control the game and play with more calm, but the exact opposite happened.
"We lost possession at times, dropped a little too deep, and couldn’t press them the way we wanted. They took advantage of their strengths and found the equalizer. We knew this was always going to be a complicated game.
"These are knockout matches, nobody gives you anything for free. Some people might underestimate certain teams because of their names, but we knew this was never going to be an easy match.
"That’s what makes this World Cup so special. Everything is incredibly close, and every single game is extremely difficult.
"As always, we gave everything we had, regardless of whether we played well or didn’t produce our best football.
"Now the most important thing is to recover, focus on the next match, and take the positives from today’s game.” @DSports@M10GOAT