⚽️ World Cup kick-off: 6pm EDT/11pm BST/8am AEST
⚽️ Spain 0-0 Cape Verde | Player guide | Bracketology
Where to start? Perhaps towards the end of April when Hervé Renard was fired as head coach and then replaced by Georgios Donis. The Greek winger, formerly of Blackburn, picked his squad without overseeing a game.
Renard was in charge from 2019 to 2023 and oversaw the famous win against Argentina at the Qatar World Cup, but broke football’s “never go back” rule in October 2024, succeeding his successor Roberto Mancini, who never looked like the right fit. The Frenchman’s second spell was underwhelming and without the tournament’s expansion the Green Falcons would not have made it, and only scraped through as it was.