Shamrock Rovers defender Roberto Lopes became the first Irish-born player to feature in the African Cup of Nations as his Cape Verde side defeated Ethiopia in their tournament opener.
The 29-year-old Dubliner - who qualifies for Cape Verde through his father - played 90 minutes at centre-back in a 1-0 win this evening.
Julio Tavares was the match-winner against 10-man Etihiopia as Cape Verde started with a win despite Covid disrupting their preparations.
Their coach Bubista is in quarantine following a positive test and nine players are isolating, which meant they started the game with just six substitutes on the bench.
League of Ireland stalwart Lopes has 22 caps, having made his international debut in 2019 after he was approached on social media network LinkedIn.
Speaking at the time, he told Mirror Sport: “I got a message in Portuguese last year but I thought it was some sort of welcome message or even spam so I went on with my normal business.
“But then I got another message in English not so long ago asking me if I'd thought about the previous message. Ooops!
“It was the manager (Rui Aguas) connecting with me on LinkedIn so I had a look at his profile and it seemed legit.
“I quickly translated the old one and it asked if I'd be interested in getting involved with a new group of players that they were planning to bring in.
“I wrote back apologising for the delay as I couldn't speak Portuguese, but said I'd love to be involved. It snowballed from there and I was lucky that I responded eventually."
Lopes was a key man for the Hoops as they retained the League of Ireland Premier Division title this season and was one of the nominees for PFAI Player of the Year.
Next up for his international team is a clash with Burkina Faso on Thursday before a meeting with tournament hosts Cameroon on Monday.
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