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Spain vs Cape Verde
Competition/Round: 2026 World Cup, Group H, Round 1
Spain Outs & Doubts: None
Cape Verde Outs & Doubts: None
Spain Form Guide: DWDDW
Cape Verde Form Guide: DDLDW
Date/Time: Monday, June 15, 2026, 6pm CET (Barcelona), 5pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 12pm ET, 9am PT (USA), 9.30pm IST (India)
Venue: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, United States
Referee: Adham Mohammad Tumah Makhadmeh (JOR)
How to watch on TV: FOX (USA), ITV 1 (UK), United8 Sports 1 (India), SuperSport (Nigeria), TVE La 1 (Spain), others
How to watch online: FuboTV (USA), ITVX (UK), ZEE5 (India), DAZN (Spain), others
It’s time for La Roja’s debut in World Cup 2026 as Spain play their first Group H match against tournament debutants Cape Verde in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday afternoon.
Barcelona fans have been waiting anxiously to watch the club’s largest contingent in North America, and after less than ideal starts for Raphinha’s Brazil and Frenkie de Jong’s Netherlands, it’s up to Spain to finally get Barça to a winning start in the biggest party of the summer.
Spain will be huge favorites on Monday, but big World Cup opening wins are no guarantee of sucess later in the tournament. Spain themselves learned this the hard way four years ago when they destroyed Costa Rica 7-0 in their first game and went on to exit the World Cup at the Round of 16 against Morocco, and the magic shown in the opener completely disappeared against better sides.
So even if La Roja get a big result on Monday, they will be fully aware there will be much tougher challenges ahead. Monday’s match is about a strong performance, a clean sheet, and maybe some goals to build a cushion in goal difference.
Luis de la Fuente confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Lamine Yamal will get some minutes in the second half and that the teenage superstar is fully recovered from his injury. The same can be said of Nico Williams, who is also expected to come off the bench with the goal of building up his fitness and eventually reuniting the devastating wing duo with Yamal later in the group stage.
There will be three Barça players in the starting lineup in Pau Cubarsí, Pedri and Ferran Torres, and all three looked very good in Spain’s final warm-up match against Peru. Pedri has established himself as the single most important non-Yamal player in the lineup, and everything will go through him on Monday.
Ferran will be hungry to take advantage of a rare chance to start in Lamine’s place and earn more minutes later in the tournament, and both Gavi and Dani Olmo will have the same goal if and when they come off the bench in this one.
Qatar, Haiti and Australia have already proven that underdogs cannot be taken for granted in this World Cup, and Cape Verde can absolutely give Spain a fight despite the major gulf in class between the sides. But La Roja look ready to start the World Cup in dominant fashion, and send an early message to the rest of the contender field.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Spain (4-3-3): Simón; Porro, Cubarsí, Laporte, Cucurella; Fabián, Rodri, Pedri; Ferran, Oyarzabal, Baena
Cape Verde (4-2-3-1): Vozinha; Moreira, Lopes, Costa, Paulo; Semedo, Pina; Mendes, Monteiro, Cabral; Livramento
PREDICTION
With the exception of 2022, World Cup openers are never straightforward for Spain, but I believe the difference in quality between the two sides will eventually become evident throughout the 90 minutes and La Roja will cruise to a strong opening match victory: 3-0 Spain.
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