Tiny Caribbean Island Makes World Cup History

Curaçao has made history by becoming the smallest country by population to qualify for a World Cup. The tiny Caribbean island secured a 0-0 draw against Jamaica on Tuesday, finishing top of Group B with 12 points.

The island nation has a population of only 156,115 people, according to official statistics from January. This breaks the previous record held by Iceland, which had around 350,000 people when they qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Curaçao finished the tournament undefeated, which is an impressive achievement. They topped their group and will go to the World Cup for the first time in their history.

The team's coach is Dick Advocaat, a 78-year-old Dutch manager. He was not on the bench for Tuesday's important match because he had to return to the Netherlands for family reasons. Advocaat has a lot of experience. He previously coached the Netherlands national team three times and also managed teams in South Korea, Belgium, and Russia.

The match against Jamaica was tense. Jamaica came close to scoring several times. They hit the post three times during the game. In stoppage time, Jamaica was given a penalty, but after a video review, the referee changed his decision.

Despite having a small population, Curaçao has several talented players. Brothers Juninho and Leandro Bacuna both play for the team. Juninho played for Rangers and Birmingham City, while Leandro played in the Premier League with Aston Villa.

Other teams also qualified from the region. Panama defeated El Salvador 3-0 to reach their second World Cup. Haiti won their group after beating Nicaragua 2-0.