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A goal from Ja­maica’s Re­nal­do Cephas in the 53rd minute dashed T&T’s hopes of a qual­i­fy­ing chance at the 2026 World Cup in Cana­da, Mex­i­co, and the Unit­ed States, as the match end­ed in a 1-1 draw at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain last night.

Cephas con­trolled the ball from the wide left of the T&T goal area, and de­spite the pres­ence of An­dre Ray­mond in front of him, the Ja­maican strik­er was al­lowed to drib­ble the ball in­to the box and shoot low past Den­zil Smith in­to the far right cor­ner of the T&T goal.

​The re­al­i­ty of a T&T ex­it con­sumed fans amidst a close-to-sell-out crowd. Mid­field­er Kevin Moli­no fi­nal­ly took hold of a ball in the Ja­maican area that its de­fend­ers could not clear in the 85th minute. Moli­no, who made his en­trance on the field rather be­lat­ed­ly, blast­ed the ball low past An­dre Blake in the Ja­maican goal, briefly re­viv­ing hopes of a sec­ond World Cup berth.