Portugal Stalled as DR Congo Marks World Cup Return with Historic Draw

HOUSTON – The script was written for Cristiano Ronaldo. Portugal, heavy favourites, a goal up inside six minutes, the 41-year-old chasing yet another slice of World Cup history.

DR Congo tore it up.

Fifty-two years after their last appearance on this stage, the African nation absorbed pressure, grew bolder with every minute, and walked away with a 1-1 draw that will echo far louder in Kinshasa than in Lisbon. For Portugal, it felt like a warning.

Dream start, flat response

The afternoon began exactly as Roberto Martinez would have drawn it on the tactics board. Pedro Neto found space wide, glanced up, and whipped in a precise cross. Joao Neves, timing his run perfectly, met it with a firm header from around 15 metres. Six minutes gone. 1-0.

It should have been the platform for a statement. It ended up being their only shot on target.

From there, Portugal kept the ball but not the tempo. Their midfield stroked passes around as if in a training drill, the crowd watching patterns rather than penetration. DR Congo sat deep, organised and patient, content to let the favourites pass themselves into a daze.

Martinez later admitted his players felt the weight of expectation, chasing the tournament instead of the match in front of them. The second goal never came, the urgency rarely did.

DR Congo grow, and strike

All the while, DR Congo slowly adjusted to the occasion. Backed by a vocal pocket of fans and watched in the stands by President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, they began to push higher, to contest second balls, to believe.

The reward arrived deep into first-half stoppage time. Arthur Masuaku, given room on the flank, shaped a wicked cross into the box. Yoane Wissa, completely unmarked, attacked it and steered his header past the goalkeeper.

History in a single nod: DR Congo’s first-ever World Cup goal.

Sebastien Desabre’s side erupted. A team that had spent most of the half chasing shadows suddenly had something tangible, something permanent. A goal and, as it turned out, a point.

“It is a step forward for us to have scored this first goal and to have this first point for our country during this World Cup,” Desabre said. “We gave everything we had against the team of Portugal. We are delighted.”

Ronaldo contained, Portugal dulled

This was supposed to be Ronaldo’s stage again. A sixth World Cup, a record he now shares with Lionel Messi. On this night he became the oldest player ever to start a World Cup match. The landmarks keep coming. The chances did not.

DR Congo’s defenders crowded him, cut off the spaces where he usually thrives, and forced him to feed on scraps. When opportunities finally did fall his way, they went begging. Twice he fired wide from close range, snapshots that in another era would have nestled in the corner.

Martinez tried to jolt his side at the break. Bernardo Silva made way at half-time, a bold move on paper, but Ronaldo stayed on, the coach gambling that his all-time leading scorer would eventually find that one decisive moment. It never arrived.

Portugal did at least raise the intensity after the interval. The sterile domination of the first half gave way to quicker passing and more bodies in the box. Yet the clearer chance came at the other end.

Cedric Bakambu almost turned the night into a seismic shock when he broke free and beat the keeper, only to see his effort crash against the post. For a few seconds, the stadium held its breath. Portugal were that close to opening their campaign with a defeat that would have reverberated around the tournament.

Emotion, frustration, and a warning

The backdrop made the evening even more emotionally charged for Portugal. They played in front of the parents of former teammate Diogo Jota, who was killed along with his brother in a car crash in 2025. It was the kind of occasion that demanded a performance with edge and purpose.

Instead, it drifted. Possession without incision. Territory without threat. A game that, at times, looked like a closed-doors session rather than a World Cup opener for one of the favourites.

DR Congo, by contrast, left everything out there. Desabre’s players chased, blocked, and broke with conviction. They earned their point, then defended it with a mixture of discipline and raw desire.

For Portugal, the table is already more complicated than it should be. Matches against Uzbekistan and Colombia now carry a sharper edge. Slip again, and the dream of delivering Ronaldo the one major trophy missing from his glittering career starts to look fragile.

They know this story. In 2022, Morocco sent them home in the quarter-finals. Their best finish at a World Cup remains third place in 1966, a relic from another footballing age.

Debutants Uzbekistan and Colombia meet later in Mexico City to complete the first round of Group K fixtures. By the time Portugal next step onto the pitch, they will know exactly what is required.

The question is whether this flat, anxious version of Martinez’s team can transform into the ruthless contender a World Cup demands – before the tournament, and Ronaldo’s last great chase, slips away from them.