Spain vs Cape Verde Islands Predictions

• Spain are the pre-tournament favourites
• Cape Verde are making their World Cup debut
• La Roja have seven clean sheets in their last nine games

Cape Verde unlikely to test Spain

Spain enter World Cup 2026 as the favourites to claim the trophy and they should be able to make a perfect start against Cape Verde.

The African outfit are competing in the summer showpiece for the first time in their history and should find themselves outclassed at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

The Blue Sharks are odds-on to finish bottom of Group H but they may fare better than those prices suggest. They did top a tough qualification group that included Cameroon and picked up an eye-catching 3-0 win over Serbia in a warm-up game, but this Spain side look unlikely to be on the wrong end of an upset.

La Roja are unbeaten in normal time in their last 29 games and they’ve won six of their last nine, keeping clean sheets in seven of those fixtures. As such, backing Spain to win to nil looks a strong angle for our main bet.

Spain are capable of putting together big wins and a 4-0 success seems reasonable here. Luis de la Fuente’s side have scored at least four goals in three of their last eight games and exactly four in two of those.

Lamine Yamal is expected to be fit for the tournament opener and he stands out as the best candidate for an anytime goal at around evens, after scoring 16 goals in 28 La Liga games for Barcelona last season.