Cape Verde coach Bubista told his players to continue chasing their dreams after their remarkable World Cup campaign continued with a 2-2 draw against Uruguay.

Having held European champions Spain to a goalless stalemate in their Group H opener, the tournament debutants played out a thrilling draw with Marcelo Bielsa's men on Sunday.

Cape Verde are the first debutant country to go undefeated in their first two World Cup matches since Senegal in 2002 (W1 D1), and they now know a victory over Saudi Arabia on Friday would clinch a spot in the knockout rounds.

They went ahead through Kevin Pina's driven free-kick, becoming the first team on record (since 1966) to score their first-ever World Cup goal from a direct free-kick. It was also the longest-range goal of the 2026 tournament so far, coming from 32 metres out. 

Goals from Maxi Araujo and Agustin Canobbio put Uruguay ahead before half-time, but Cape Verde drew level when Helio Varela took advantage of a misjudgement from Fernando Muslera to slot into an unguarded net in the 61st minute.

Cape Verde are only the second African nation on record to score multiple goals from outside the box in a World Cup match (since 1966), after Nigeria against Greece in 1994.

And Bubista expressed his pride in his post-match press conference, saying his team – who now have a 69.8% chance of reaching the last 32, according to the Opta supercomputer – have proven dreams can come true. 

"Once you're on the pitch, a lot of things become equal. As big as the opponent might be on the world stage, many national teams become equal," Bubista told reporters.

"We wanted to show that is true not only in football, but also in other aspects of life.

"You can achieve great things regardless of your challenges, whether they're financial or of any other kind, so long as ⁠you have a dream and chase after it."

But Bubista was upset about the nature of Uruguay's first goal, which came while Cape Verde's Telmo Arcanjo was down and suffering with cramp.

Uruguay's Federico Vinas had been helping Arcanjo stretch his leg, before dropping it and darting into the box when he realised his team were on the attack. 

"I was upset by that, because Bielsa taught us to have fair play. That's in his press conferences and the matches his teams play. We learned what fair play was from his attitude," he said.

"It felt frustrating, but that's part of the game and part of the experience of growing with the team.

"We could have done something to prevent that situation, we could have kicked the ball off the pitch, but we're trying to do things our own way.

"It's also natural that players will sometimes feel pressured, and we can say that about the Uruguay team as well. We can only grow from what happened."

Uruguay now need to beat Spain to be certain of a place in the knockout rounds, and Araujo knows his first World Cup goal will count for nothing if they come up short.

"The goal is useless, but it was still good. We have one more game left, we need to win and that's what we have to go out and look for," Araujo said. 

"It is useless because that is something individual. Hopefully, on Friday I can score and play a great game so that the goal is useful.

"It's up to us, we're going to play against the first team, against whom we feel is the strongest. We have to prepare and go out to win, and look at them face to face."