World Cup 2026<\/a>, which has expanded to include a round of 32 for the first time. Only goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and striker Lautaro Martinez remain from the previous matchday, as Argentina restores its preferred defensive core of Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martinez.<\/p>\nCape Verde enters the tie having already defied expectations in their debut finals appearance. The Blue Sharks finished the group stage unbeaten, a run highlighted by a scoreless draw against Spain. Managerial adjustments for the knockout clash include five changes, with Sidny Lopes Cabral and Jovane Cabral among those drafted into the starting eleven to face the world\u2019s top-ranked team.<\/p>\n
The tactical setup for Argentina sees Thiago Almada and Enzo Fernandez supporting a front line led by Messi and Lautaro Martinez. For Cape Verde, the reliance remains on the experience of Ryan Mendes and the defensive organization that stifled two major opponents in the opening round.<\/p>\n
The winner of the Miami encounter will travel to Atlanta on Tuesday to face either Australia or Egypt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina enters the knockout phase of the World Cup 2026 in Miami this Friday, facing a Cape Verde side that has emerged as the tournament\u2019s most improbable underdog. Lionel Messi returns to the starting lineup as the reigning champions signal an end to their group-stage rotations, making nine changes from the side that defeated Jordan. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[407,1981,1990,1987,1985,1988,1991,1982,1984,1986,1989,1993,73,1992,1983],"class_list":["post-1282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-argentina","tag-cape-verde","tag-emiliano-martinez","tag-joint-top-scorer","tag-knockout","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-lautaro-martinez","tag-lionel-messi","tag-miami","tag-reigning-champions","tag-round-of-32","tag-ryan-mendes","tag-spain","tag-unbeaten","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1283,"href":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282\/revisions\/1283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}