The fairytale is still alive. Cape Verde battled back from behind to snatch a stunning 2-2 draw with Uruguay on Sunday, and now the World Cup minnows are daring to dream of something extraordinary, a place in the knockout rounds.

The tiny Atlantic archipelago nation, making their debut on football’s biggest stage, followed up their sensational opening draw with Spain by taking another precious point from one of South America’s heavyweights. Now, ranked 63rd in the world and written off before a ball was kicked, they stand on the brink of history.

Victory over Saudi Arabia in their final Group H clash will send Cape Verde through to the last 32, and coach Bubista isn’t hiding from the ambition anymore.

Playing without fear

“Since the beginning, what we’ve been saying is that we would like to compete at the highest possible level, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Bubista said after Sunday’s heroics.

“That’s what we’ve been doing in these two matches, and more important than the result is to be able to show our identity as a team, our strength, our unity, and also our resilience.”

Bubista had promised his side would play “without fear” against Uruguay, and they delivered on that pledge in spectacular fashion. Kevin Pina’s superb free-kick gave them a shock lead before Uruguay fought back to go 2-1 up. But Cape Verde refused to buckle, with Helio Varela levelling the scores before they held firm under immense pressure to claim a point that keeps their World Cup dream burning bright.

No longer just happy to be here

The shift in mentality is palpable. What began as a mission simply to compete with honour has evolved into genuine belief that history can be made.

“We’re here to compete to try to achieve a new dream, which is to qualify for the second round and I think it’s legitimate to think that way,” Bubista declared.

“We have the utmost respect for all of our opponents…but we’re now at a point of saying yes, we will definitely fight for qualification.”

The coach added: “We want to show the entire world that we are in the condition to fight for qualification. At this point all we are thinking about is to qualify for the next round.”

It’s a remarkable turnaround for a nation of just over 500,000 people who weren’t even expected to register a point in Group H. Now they’ve taken two from two of the tournament’s traditional powerhouses, and one more result against Saudi Arabia will write their names into World Cup folklore forever.

The identity Bubista spoke of, resilience, unity, fearlessness, has been on full display. They’ve absorbed pressure, struck when chances arrived and refused to be overawed by reputation or occasion.

One match now stands between Cape Verde and immortality. Based on what we’ve seen so far, you wouldn’t bet against them.