Spain held to shock World Cup draw by Cape Verde: Should we rethink their tag as favourites?

The World Cup has its first big shock result after Spain were held by debutants Cape Verde in their Group H opener.Luis de la Fuente’s side were many people’s pre-tournament picks for the trophy, but they struggled in front of goal against inspired opponents — who are 61 places below them in FIFA’s rankings.Here, Dermot Corrigan, Felipe Cardenas and Anantaajith Raghuraman break down the game’s many talking points.Are Spain just not as good as we thought?Spain’s openers at recent World Cups have been full of drama: a 5-1 defeat by the Netherlands in 2014, an exciting 3-3 draw with Portugal in 2018 and a 7-0 thrashing of Costa Rica four years ago in Qatar.Even in 2010, when they won the trophy, they started in unexpected fashion —losing 1-0 to Switzerland.This year’s game had a dramatic finale, but a less than thrilling start. De la Fuente’s side dominated possession from the off, but their first shot on target took 20 minutes to arrive, with Pedri’s long ranger not really testing Vozinha in the Cape Verde goal.As the game progressed, Spain were getting some joy when new Real Madrid signing Marc Cucurella overlapped from left-back, leading to a chance which Ferran Torres smashed off the crossbar just before the break.Meanwhile, their two wide-attacking stars of Euro 2024 were sat on the bench, with Yamal and Nico Williams both less than 100 per cent fit after recent muscle injuries.There were cheers from the stadium when 18-year-old Yamal went out to warm up just after half-time, and it was a surprise that De la Fuente waited so long to make any substitutions with the game continuing at 0-0.(Roberto Schmidt / AFP via Getty Images)Yamal has not played for club or country since picking up the latest muscle problem with Barcelona on April 22, but De la Fuente decided the risk was worth it in the 71st minute. He almost immediately sprinted past his marker, opening space which led to a half-chance for fellow substitute Mikel Merino of Arsenal, but Cape Verde continued to look quite comfortable in defence. Williams was introduced in the 87th minute.