Kevin Pina stunner and late Varela strike earn Cape Verde a historic draw with Uruguay

Kevin Pina scored Cape Verde's first-ever World Cup goal with a stunning free-kick and substitute Hélio Varela grabbed a 61st-minute equaliser as the debutants held Uruguay to a 2-2 draw in Miami.

Cape Verde keep stunning the world. The smallest nation at the tournament held two-time champions Uruguay to a 2-2 draw at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, and they did it with a goal for the ages and a finish that will be replayed on the islands for generations.

The history-maker was Kevin Pina. On twenty-one minutes the Krasnodar midfielder stood over a free-kick and curled it up and over the wall and beyond the goalkeeper, a strike of real beauty and the first World Cup goal Cape Verde have ever scored. A nation of half a million people had waited a lifetime for that moment.

Uruguay, stung, hit back before the break. Maximiliano Araújo bundled in a rebound on forty-four minutes, and deep into first-half stoppage time Agustín Canobbio tapped home from an Araújo cutback to send Marcelo Bielsa's side in 2-1 ahead. The favourites looked to have ridden out the storm.

They had not. On sixty-one minutes substitute Hélio Varela pounced on a dreadful mix-up between Mathías Olivera and the Uruguayan goalkeeper, rolling the ball into an empty net to make it 2-2. The Cape Verde end erupted, and the underdogs had their famous point.

For all their possession, Uruguay could not find a winner. Bielsa's men finished with sixty-six per cent of the ball, sixteen shots and eleven corners, yet managed only two efforts on target. Federico Valverde drove them on, but a wasteful evening leaves them with two draws from two and plenty to ponder.

Cape Verde, by contrast, are living a dream. After holding Spain goalless in their opener, Ryan Mendes and his team-mates have now taken a point off Uruguay too, and they sit level on points with the South Americans in Group H. Our Africa round-one verdict called the debutants the story of the round, and they are not done writing it.

Group H is wide open behind Spain. Uruguay and Cape Verde share second and third on two points each, Saudi Arabia trail on one, and the final round of fixtures will decide who goes through. A nation that had never scored at a World Cup before tonight now has qualification in its own hands.

Half of Kenya was up watching this one, willing the underdogs on, and they were not disappointed. Wadogo wameandika history, na free-kick ya Pina ilikuwa peng kabisa: the little ones have written history, and Pina's free-kick was pure class. Few teams at this World Cup are more fun to watch than the Blue Sharks.