Portugal Stumbles Against DR Congo in Ronaldo's World Cup Opener
HOUSTON – This was supposed to be a gentle stride into the tournament for one of the favourites. Instead, Portugal walked off shaking their heads, Cristiano Ronaldo staring into the middle distance, while the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrated a point that felt like a homecoming parade.
Fifty-two years they had waited to return to a World Cup. They made it count.
Dream start, flat response
For six minutes, everything followed the script.
Portugal sliced through with ease, Pedro Neto drifting into space on the left and hanging up a teasing cross. Joao Neves, timing his run perfectly, rose to meet it and powered a header in from around 15 metres. One-nil, early control, the kind of start that usually ends with a routine win and a comfortable press conference.
That, remarkably, was Portugal’s only effort on target all afternoon.
Roberto Martinez’s side monopolised the ball, but not the danger. They passed, recycled, and passed again, often in front of a Congolese block that refused to be dragged out of shape. The coach later admitted the weight of expectation had seeped into his players’ decision-making, the obsession with winning the World Cup dulling the sharp edge required to simply win the game in front of them.
They looked like a team playing with the trophy in their heads, not the opponent in front of their eyes.
DR Congo grow, and strike
DR Congo started cautiously, as if bracing for a storm. Ronaldo, at 41, hunting a goal in a sixth World Cup, drifted across the front line, looking for gaps. The African side sat deep, absorbed the pressure, and waited.
Gradually, the waiting turned into belief.
Backed by a noisy contingent and watched from the stands by President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, DR Congo began to push higher. They snapped into challenges, broke with more conviction, and forced Portugal’s midfield to turn.
Then, deep into first-half stoppage time, came the moment that will live forever in Congolese football history.
Arthur Masuaku, given room on the left, whipped a vicious cross into the area. Yoane Wissa, completely unmarked, attacked it and buried his header. Their first-ever World Cup goal. Their first point on this stage in more than half a century. The reaction on the pitch told its own story: players sprinting to the corner, arms aloft, a bench emptied in jubilation.
Coach Sebastien Desabre called it a step forward. It felt like a leap.
A second half heavy with emotion
Portugal emerged after the break with more urgency, the tempo finally resembling a World Cup match rather than a training drill. The backdrop made it even more charged: they were playing in front of the parents of former teammate Diogo Jota, who died in a car crash with his brother in 2025. There was a sense that this campaign, and this opener, carried extra emotional weight.
Martinez acted at half-time, withdrawing Bernardo Silva but keeping Ronaldo on, gambling that his captain could still conjure something from a flat performance.
The chances came, but not for the man in the spotlight.
Cedric Bakambu almost turned the afternoon into a seismic upset, smashing a shot against the post as DR Congo broke forward with purpose. Every Portuguese misplaced pass seemed to feed Congolese confidence. Every minute that ticked by tightened the tension.
Ronaldo had his moments, but only just. Twice he found half a yard in the box and twice he dragged efforts wide from close range. For all his experience, for all the history – now the oldest player ever to start a World Cup match, sharing the record of six tournaments with Lionel Messi – he was kept on the margins. DR Congo’s defenders tracked his runs, blocked his channels, and denied him the spaces in which he has built a career.
He saw little of the ball. He influenced even less.
Portugal’s warning shot
By the final whistle, Portugal’s early swagger had evaporated. The performance lacked incision, their control of possession masking a shortage of ideas in the final third. Neves’ goal felt like something from another match entirely.
Martinez spoke of mentality, of the burden of expectation, of needing to focus on beating Congo before dreaming of lifting the trophy. The table, and the mood, now demand a reaction.
Next come Uzbekistan and Colombia in Group K, matches that suddenly carry a sharper edge. Portugal know what happened last time they underestimated an African side on this stage: Morocco sent them home in the 2022 quarter-finals. Their best finish remains third place in 1966.
Ronaldo is chasing one of the last missing pieces of silverware in his extraordinary career. If Portugal play like this again, the chase could end abruptly.
