{"id":640101,"date":"2026-06-15T16:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/640101\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T16:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T16:00:06","slug":"spain-vs-cape-verde-live-fifa-world-cup-group-h-score-commentary-updates-stats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/640101\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain vs Cape Verde LIVE: FIFA World Cup Group H score, commentary, updates &#038; stats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lopes&#8217; unconventional route to World Cup stagepublished at 16:56 BST<\/p>\n<p>16:56 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-fxb76l-Paragraph e14e9ror4\">Spain v Cape Verde (17:00 BST)<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1l98ssq-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f364e25c-8c4f-4336-a6ee-0d06e2f9f959.jpg.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Neil Johnston<br \/>BBC Sport in New York<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Pico Lopes #4 of Cabo Verde poses during the official FIFA World Cup 2026 portrait session on June 05, 2026 in Hartford, Connecticut.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5593ba5e-49a5-4829-8c36-b5cefb88c553.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1024\" height=\"698\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He was recruited on social media to play for a tiny island nation 3,000 miles from where he was born, and now a former Dublin bank worker looks set to face Spain at the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Roberto Lopes&#8217; story sounds so far fetched even Hollywood scriptwriters might consider it implausible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I was not enjoying the work,&#8221; says the 33-year-old about his desk job as he reflects on a wild, inspirational journey, from being a white-collar worker in the Republic of Ireland to playing for Cape Verde at their first World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The defender, nicknamed &#8216;Pico&#8217;, was a newly qualified mortgage adviser 10 years ago, playing part-time for Bohemians in the League of Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Then, in 2017, Dublin rivals Shamrock Rovers offered Lopes a chance to give up his day job and throw himself into a full-time football career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has not looked back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lopes starts for minnows Cape Verde as they face 2010 world champions Spain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lopes&#8217; unconventional route to World Cup stagepublished at 16:56 BST 16:56 BST Spain v Cape Verde (17:00 BST)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-640101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}