Cristiano Ronaldo has waited patiently for his first outing at World Cup 2026 and the sight of Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe all shining in their first appearances of the tournament will have fired up the Portugal leader even more.
In his sixth – and presumably final – World Cup, Ronaldo will look to guide a team with huge strength in depth behind him towards the latter stages despite questions over whether he is now more hindrance than help to head coach Roberto Martinez.
They begin their Group K campaign with a moderately tricky assignment against a DR Congo side that took the long route towards qualification but are expected to put up a reasonable fight in a pool also featuring Colombia and debutants Uzbekistan.
Follow all the action below:
Portugal 1-1 DR Congo
52’ – Not all the innovations are bad. DRC are punished for taking too long over a goal kick, meaning Portugal now get a corner. Fernandes, who ironically takes quite a while to trot over, tries to find Ronaldo but it is defended well.
Portugal 1-1 DR Congo
51’ – Bakambu flashes an effort across goal which is saved by Costa. He is flagged offside but, again, there are more and more signs of DRC growing in stature here.
Portugal 1-1 DR Congo
49’ – Neto puts in a fine cross from the left towards Conceicao. The substitute falls over, forlornly asks for a penalty before realising it is a goal kick.
Portugal 1-1 DR Congo
48’ – Now, then. DRC have started this half with a decent spell of possession. It ends when Wan-Bissaka dribbles down the right but runs out of space under pressure from Veiga, but that is a much stronger sign of intent.
Portugal change at break
The teams are back out and it looks like Portugal will be making a change. Conceicao is coming on for Silva, who has his tracksuit on and is sitting on the bench. He was booked.
The half-time stats
Portugal had 80% of the ball, they made 488 passes compared to DR Congo’s 118. And yet DR Congo had three times the attempts (6-2) and one more on target despite trailing touches in their opponents’ box 11-3.
Most importantly of all – and this the only statistic that really matters – they are level at the break.
Half-time! Portugal 1-1 DR Congo
And that is the final act of a first half in which the Leopards barely touched the ball but somehow find themselves level.
GOAL! Portugal 1-1 DR Congo (Wissa, 45+5)
50’ – The corner is taken short but is then eventually swung in by Masuaku for the Newcastle man to head in a brilliant equaliser! Having been utterly dominated, they will go into the break level and their travelling supporters have absolutely erupted.
Portugal 1-0 DR Congo
48’ – Moutoussamy has a go from range, winning a corner that is cleared. DR Congo recycle the ball and Mbemba wins a second corner, via a deflection off Fernandes. The DR Congo captain is down with a sore ankle having appeared to twist it when crossing. He will be OK to continue, though is hobbling into the box awaiting the delivery.
