Cape Verde earned a very credible point in their first ever World Cup game, with 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha helping to keep out European champions Spain, a side ranked 65 places about them in FIFA’s world rankings.

Spain recorded 27 shots in the game, seven on target, all saved by a keeper who was looking to quit international football until his teammates convinced him that staying for the qualification run would be worth all the hard work. Now he has memories that will last a lifetime.

Cape Verde, the squad from the archipelago nation in the Atlantic ocean, stuck to their task, conceding 74% possession but committing just one foul against a Spain side that contained four players from Barcelona’s title winning team in LaLiga, a back-to-back Champions League winner, a former Ballon d’Or, plus, from the bench, the fit again talents of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams.

🇨🇻 How did Cape Verde earn that result? The Analyst take a deeper look

The omens were not looking good for African football’s most successful nation. Not only had Belgium lost just one opening fixture in their 14 previous visits to the World Cup finals, but Egypt have never won.

That latter stat still stands. The Pharoahs scored first through Emam Ashour, one of eight starters based in Egypt’s domestic league, assisted by Mohamed Salah, who was celebrating his 34th birthday. And for a long period it looked as though that might be enough.

But, with the fans in the stadium calling for change, and no doubt Belgians around the world screaming the same at their screens, coach Rudi Garcia finally introduced talisman Romelu Lukaku on 66 minutes.

22 seconds later, Lukaku’s sheer presence up front caused Mohamed Hany to put through his own goal to level the scores.

New Zealand are making their third appearance at the World Cup finals, and having drawn all three of their group games in their last appearance, in 2010, they kept the run going with an entertaining 2-2 draw against Iran.

The Kiwis were the only unbeaten side to compete at that tournament won by Spain in South Africa, and they backed that up here. Motherwell forward Elijah Just became the first New Zealander to score multiple goals in a World Cup, and Chris Wood the first to record more than one assist, with the country’s record goalscorer turning provider for both of Just’s strikes.

Iran, who have faced so much adversity in simply making it to the finals in such extraordinary circumstances (being the first participant to find themselves actively at war with the host nation), twice came from behind to claim a valuable point.

🤝 But what about Saudi Arabia vs. Uruguay? Well, that also finished with the scores level - meaning that for the first time since 1958, four draws were recorded in a single day at the World Cup.

Catch up with that game - with match reports and highlights available here.

Tuesday sees both 2022 finalists in action as reigning world champions Argentina kick off their title defence against Algeria in Group J.

Before that, we’ll see how France fare against Senegal, the side who lifted the AFCON trophy in January only to later be stripped of their title due to their protests during the final against Morocco.

Norway’s long awaited return to the World Cup comes against Iraq, also in France’s group. And debutants Jordan take on Austria in the final game of the day.

When asked in the pre-match press conference, Didier Deschamps insisted that Spain, and not his French side, are the real favourites for the World Cup. That was, to be fair, before he and the rest of us, watched the European champions draw a blank against Cape Verde.

France’s legendary coach, one of only three men who’ve won the whole thing as player and manager, has little left to prove coming in to this, the final tournament of his 14-year run in the job.

But it will be interesting to see how the old master marshals one of the most exciting set of forwards in world football, and you wouldn’t rule out France reaching a third straight final if Deschamps can get the best out of Mbappé, Dembélé, Olise, Doué, Cherki, et al.

🗣️ Those pre-match quotes from Deschamps in full

The World Cup holders have a terrible record in their first game at previous finals. They were beaten by Saudi Arabia in Qatar four years ago, and in 2018 they only managed a goalless draw against Iceland before losing to Croatia in their second game.

Looking further back, Argentina also lost in the first fixture played at the tournaments that followed their prior World Cup wins (in 1982 and 1990).

Which is the sort of match fact that Algeria manager Vladimir Petković might be printing out and pinning to the dressing room wall ahead of today’s match against Lionel Scaloni’s defending champions in Kansas City.

📊 The Analyst dig deep in to Argentina’s title defence

The most hotly-anticipated game of the Group Stage at FotMob HQ in Bergen, is finally here. The office will be staying up late to witness their national team’s first appearance at a World Cup since France 1998.

Whether the current golden generation of players can genuinely live up to the dark horses tag they have been given remains to be seen, but confidence will be high going up against Iraq.

Iraq’s absence from the finals is even longer than Norway’s (they last appeared at Mexico ‘86), but their team spirit should be unrivalled after a lengthy qualification process that saw them get through three group stages, the AFC playoff, AND then finally, FIFA’s Inter-confederation playoff.