CAPE VERDE’s Sidny Lopes Cabral scored the best goal of the World Cup and then celebrated by sprinting into the crowd to hug his girlfriend.
The goal vs Argentina dragged his side back to 2-2 in extra-time of their incredible last 32 clash.
Cabral cut in from the left hand side and whipped the ball into the far corner just when it seemed the African’s were destined to peter out.
The 23-year-old – actually born in Holland – used an Argentine defender to block the goalkeeper’s vision and whip a stunning effort across goal.
The manic celebrations that followed saw the full-back sprint into the crowd and then bizarrely wait as his partner made her way down to embrace him.
While the identity of the Trabzonspor defender’s missus is unknown, she was certainly worth the wait to embrace.
Ian Wright remarked on ITV: “He wouldn’t go back on the pitch until his girlfriend had seen him.”
Lopes Cabral will do well to ever beat that moment in his career and the 23-year-old made sure to savour every moment he could.
He very nearly replicated the feat in the 115th minute from a free-kick but Emi Martinez managed to tip his effort over the bar.
It was the latest stunning moment in a magical World Cup for the African minnows who held the mighty Spain in the group stages and drew with Uruguay as well.
They came from behind twice to push Argentina towards penalties.
Sadly, the all-time upset was only on the cards for about five minutes.
Lionel Messi rose to the occasion once again to whip in a delicious cross for Tottenham’s Cristian Romero to head home and make it 3-2.
Romero’s header actually hit a defender’s hand on the way in and that steered it towards goal, unfortuantely for the brave Cape Verde troops. It was later ruled an own goal.
To put into context the difference between the two sides, Argentina are the second best team in the world in the Fifa rankings – Cape Verde are the ninth best in Africa at 67th in the world.
The defending champions managed to sneak through with a 3-2 win where Messi himself opened the scoring and took the outright lead in the golden boot race.
The 39-year-old scored his seventh goal of the tournament with an instant first touch before roofing the finish.