Argentina vs. Cape Verde live updates: World Cup Round of 32 continues after Egypt’s PK shootout win

The Blue Sharks are starting to heat up a little bit in this second half, and are able to get an excellent chance in the 54th minute. Deroy Duarte takes a shot from above the box; Emiliano Martínez appears to react late to the chance as the ball travels through traffic, but he eventually dives to save it. First shot on target for Cape Verde.

Another corner kick for Cape Verde, as the ball lands with Jovane Cabral, who takes a shot but it gets a slight deflection to go out.

On the corner, though, Cabral knocks heads with his teammate while diving for the ball. He is eventually able to get back up, but a briefly scary scene.

The second half is underway, as Argentina hopes to pull to a more comfortable lead, and Cape Verde hopes to break through and make this game a little more exciting.

Though Argentina leads in the first half, Cape Verde has done a great job of keeping the defending champions out of the box — for the most part. But a stellar finish from Lionel Messi is the difference maker so far, in what has been a defensive battle.

With time waning in the half, Vozinha keeps the game at 1-0, diving to stop a shot from Enzo Fernández at the top of the box. The 40-year-old keeper, who has become a World Cup folk hero, has two saves on the night so far.

That was a better-organized chance for Cape Verde, as defender Steven Moreira makes a run down the right side, but isn’t able to take a shot. Instead, he settles for passing it through the box to Sidny Lopes Cabral on the opposite side, and the momentum quickly falls from there. A bit of a missed opportunity there for the Blue Sharks.

Turns out Argentina just needed a little hydration to get the offense moving. Lionel Messi times his run perfectly off a long ball from defender Lisandro Martínez, and gets the perfect tap over Vozinha to send it into the back of the net.

Cape Verde and Vozinha have done a great job of holding Messi and Argentina back so far, but something was bound to break eventually.

Though the on-ball action has been a little dull so far, watching Cape Verde guard Lionel Messi has been very interesting to watch. The Blue Sharks have placed an extra focus on the Argentinian captain, at some points having as many as three players surrounding Messi.

Jovane Cabral and Sidny Lopes Cabral, the winger and fullback on Cape Verde’s left side, have been among the players keeping Messi from making a move. Both have broken up passes and put pressure on the start midfielder to keep him from scoring.

Notably, Cape Verde is not parking the bus; it’s a much smarter mixture of taking advantage of two-on-one battles and working to intercept potential runs before they happen.

Vozinha has gotten pressure in the back from Argentinian striker Lautaro Martínez more than once so far, but has handled it well. That time, Vozinha was able to juke the ball out of the way of Martínez just in time to keep it alive.

Messi takes the direct free kick, and while it clears the wall, it doesn’t have nearly enough power to clear Vozinha, who saves it easily.

Shortly afterwards, the ball finds Messi inside the box, but Vozinha comes off his line to scoop it up and save a dangerous chance. The Cape Verde goalkeeper is continuing to put up an excellent performance at this World Cup.

Jovane Cabral takes down Lionel Messi while on his way to the ball, seemingly getting to the ball first. But the referee calls the foul, giving Argentina a pretty dangerous chance outside the box. Several Cape Verde players express their discontent with the call, after what they believed was a clean tackle.

15 minutes in, this game has finally seen a shot taken at the goal. Lionel Messi, looking a little impatient with the slow play, takes the ball from the foot of Rodrigo De Paul and sends in a shot with his left foot, but it goes wide right of the goal.

Early set piece chance for Cape Verde, as Sidny Lopes Cabral kicks it short to adjust the angle. However, nothing comes of it.

It’s been mostly Argentina controlling the ball so far, but no shots have been taken yet by either team.

After Egypt’s thrilling win in penalties, up next is a tale of David and Goliath. Argentina, the defending champions, will hope to get a clear victory over the wily Cape Verde, a debutante team that has rode a magical Cinderella run to this point.

The New York Giants quarterback was on the look for Argentina fans ahead of the Round of 32 matchup Friday night.

On his 25th birthday — and on what should have been the beginning of personal preparations for the World Cup Round of 16 in this soccer-celebrating city — U.S. striker Folarin Balogun spent a portion of his Friday morning reacting to the controversial red card that will force him to miss Monday’s showdown with Belgium.

“A yellow card would have been fair,” he said before training at the University of Washington. “It’s something that’s happened, so we have to move forward, and I have to accept it.”

On Wednesday, Balogun scored his team-best third goal of the tournament to give the U.S. a halftime lead against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Early in the second half, however, he was red-carded following a video review of an incident that did not initially warrant discipline from referee Raphael Claus.

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