Ferran Torres struck the crossbar, and the sound it made in Atlanta carried further than anyone in red expected. Spain, european champions, world champions in 2010, among the favourites to win it all, had just been held scoreless by a country smaller than most European cities.

Cape Verde, an archipelago of just over 500,000 people, were playing the first World Cup match in their history, and they walked off with a point against the best team in Europe. It made them only the seventh nation ever to avoid defeat on its World Cup debut.

The numbers told one story. Spain had 27 shots, seven on target, more than two expected goals. Cape Verde barely mustered any. Possession was a Spanish monologue, hundreds of passes moving sideways and back, hunting for a gap the Blue Sharks refused to give. The scoreboard told a different story, and the scoreboard is the only one that counts.

At the centre of it stood Vozinha. The 40-year-old goalkeeper made seven saves, several at point-blank range, each a small act of defiance against the weight pressing in from the other end. When Luis de la Fuente sent on Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo and Nico Williams, which is a bench worth more than entire squads at this tournament, Vozinha and his back line absorbed that wave too.

Context sharpened the shock. On the same matchdays, Germany put seven past Curaçao, Sweden five past Tunisia, the United States four past Paraguay. Goals were falling everywhere. Against Cape Verde, Spain could not find one.

De la Fuente was unfazed afterwards, promising his team would "do better" next time out against Saudi Arabia. He is probably right. One draw rarely ends a campaign, and Spain remain favourites. But World Cups are remembered for nights like this, when the distance between the giant and the minnow narrowed to the width of a crossbar and a goalkeeper's gloves.

For Spain, a warning. For Cape Verde, one of the greatest day in their footballing life and proof that, for ninety minutes, half a million people can stand as tall as anyone alive.