Spain Player Ratings Vs Cape Verde in Major World Cup Shock Draw

To say that Spain’s 2026 World Cup campaign got off to a disappointing start would be an enormous understatement. Going into their opening group game against Cape Verde, La Roja were expected to win by a wide margin – instead, they drew 0-0 with the World Cup debutants.

Even though they avoided an ignominious defeat, such a result has triggered a major inquest. How could Spain, the team who won Euro 2024, fail to beat a country of just over 500,000 people? Let’s take a look at each individual performance and try to find out.

GK: Unai Simon – 6

Prior to the start of the game, people thought Unai Simon could’ve just put his feet up over the course of 90 minutes. While he had precious little work to do, it was still more than people expected.

He only had one save to make, a header on goal late in the second half, for which he was well-positioned and collected with minimal effort.

RB: Marcos Llorente – 5

Spain’s defence can’t really be faulted too much for their display against Cape Verde – Marcus Llorente falls neatly into this camp, as he did everything he needed to do.

He could’ve perhaps tried to push forward more, but in his defence, that isn’t really his game. He excels more as a defensive full-back – as such, we feel Luis de la Fuente probably should’ve fielded a more dynamic player ahead of him.

CB: Aymeric Laporte – 5

Little much can be said about Aymeric Laporte’s performance – the same can be said for the rest of Spain’s backline, as Cape Verde largely sat in.

A shot from distance that whistled over the crossbar was probably the highlight of his display. He was largely ineffective in the air, winning just 38% of his aerial duels.

CB: Pau Cubarsi – 6

Pau Cubarsi was marginally the better of the two centre-backs, winning all of his aerial duels and playing some excellent passes out of defence.

We can’t give the 19-year-old too much credit, as his role in the game was limited by Cape Verde’s minimal attacking threat, but we can commend him for doing nothing wrong in particular.