Watch: Heartbroken Cape Verde player Nuno Da Costa comforted by crying son after World Cup exit

Crying son consoled by Nuno Da Costa (Screengrab) As the final whistle blew and Argentina’s players celebrated their dramatic 3-2 victory, one of the most emotional moments of the 2026 FIFA World Cup took place on the other side of the pitch.Cape Verdean forward Nuno Da Costa stood in tears surrounded by equally emotional family members. Yet, amid his own grief after his country’s historic World Cup run came to an end, Da Costa was seen being comforted by his young son, who was also crying.Watch:The scene perfectly summed up Cape Verde’s extraordinary journey. The small island nation of more than 500,000 pushed defending champions Argentina to the brink in a thrilling round of 32 encounter before eventually going down 3-2 after extra time.Lionel Messi, who scored his record 20th World Cup goal, admitted Argentina were forced to dig deep to survive.“As this team has shown many times and as I have said many times, they compete,” Messi said in Spanish. “And we competed until the end.Few gave Cape Verde a chance heading into the tournament. Still, the World Cup debutants stunned the soccer world by becoming the smallest nation ever to reach the knockout stages, holding former champions Spain and Uruguay to draws before producing one of the games of the tournament against Argentina.Cape Verde equalized twice, once in regulation time and again in extra time, and looked set to produce one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history before an own goal ended their dream.“I have to praise our opponents,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said. “The truth is that when people say there is no such thing as an easy opponent, today (Cape Verde) proved they are a great team.”Goalkeeper Vozinha once again shone with a series of remarkable saves, while head coach Bubista praised the courage and identity of his players.“We are worthy of what our country is. We drew twice against the world champions, we made it to extra time,” said Bubista. “More than anything, it’s to be proud of our players who were worthy at the World Cup. We showed our identity.”Defender Pico Lopes echoed that sentiment.“We were so close that we pushed them to the end,” he said. “But in the end it wasn’t to be. Disappointed… but I think we showed great character today, great quality to come back in the game twice. They’re world champions for a reason.”As Cape Verde’s players remained on the pitch long after the final whistle, hugging each other through tears, Bubista summed up what his team had achieved.“We showed that we may be a small country,” he said, “but we can play against some of the best teams in the world.”