Ronaldo's Portugal Stunned by Congo as England Edged Croatia in a Six-Goal Thriller

Portugal, led by Cristiano Ronaldo, sensationally dropped points against Congo. At the same time, England, in a nervy thriller against Croatia, started with a win thanks to goals from Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham.

Less than a day had passed since the triumphant start of Argentina and Lionel Messi at the 2026 World Cup, and the crowd in Houston was already preparing for another great player to take the field — the leader and main star of the Portugal national team, Cristiano Ronaldo. You don't need to know much about football to imagine the mood in which he approached the match against Congo. After all, in addition to his hat-trick, the Argentine had also overtaken the Portuguese in the list of the tournament's all-time top scorers, drawing level with the leading goalscorer at World Cups, Germany's Miroslav Klose.

"He'll be furious. In a good way — that's exactly how he finds his motivation, that's his mentality. For him, literally everything becomes a challenge. He and Messi reached this level precisely because they motivated each other. He'll go out onto the pitch to bring Portugal a win, but also, of course, to become the top scorer; that's one hundred per cent. He wants to be the best," is how, before the match, the Portuguese's former Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney, working as a pundit for the BBC at this tournament, described the long-distance duel between Messi and Ronaldo.

Indeed, Cristiano's determination was in no doubt to anyone, but his form and the appropriateness of his presence in the starting line-up had long divided people into two camps: some believe he can still be of use, others believe he should make way for the young players. Be that as it may, after such a performance from Messi, Portugal's head coach Roberto Martínez had no other option but to put Ronaldo in the starting line-up.

For this match, the Portuguese came out wearing special silicone wristbands in memory of Diogo Jot, the Liverpool and Portugal player who tragically passed away. During the playing of the anthem, his photograph was shown on the stadium screen.

Appearing in the starting line-up at the age of 41 years and 132 days, Ronaldo became the oldest footballer ever to play at a World Cup and, like Messi, a record-holder for the number of World Cups played — he has six.

However, that was where all of Cristiano's achievements that day ended. The 2016 European champions quickly opened the scoring in the match, but then practically stopped creating any threat near the opponent's goal, and at the end of the first half, even allowed the Congolese to equalise. Yoane Wissa's goal was the first in Congo's history at the World Cups.

Over the whole game, Ronaldo made just 25 touches and remained in the shadows most of the time. One of those touches was fatal — after a pass from Francisco Conceição, Cristiano intercepted the ball from his teammate Bruno Fernandes, who was in a more favourable position, and ruined a potential goalscoring chance.

In the end, the Portugal national team sensationally dropped points, and Cristiano extended his run without a goal to ten matches at major tournaments (Euros and World Cup), once again raising questions about the wisdom of his being in the starting line-up.

Chronicle of a victory foretold

At every World Cup, several teams are by default perceived by everyone as the real favourites to win — Brazil, Germany, Argentina, France, Spain. However, there is one nation that never tires of declaring its ambitions to win the World Cup, but for decades has been unable to back them up with results. We're talking about the England national team.

Over the many years that have passed since the "Three Lions'" first and last victory at the 1966 World Cup, this overconfidence has already turned into a meme — the self-ironic song "It's Coming Home," about how,w at every major tournament, the English lay claim to victory, but then every time something gets in the way of achieving it. There's even a belief: the louder the fans sing this song after successful opening matches, the more painful the next disappointment will be.

To ssome extentt it recalls Gabriel García Márquez's novella "Chronicle of a Death Foretold." Each time before a tournament, the English pompously promise that this will be the one, and begin to write their story beautifully, but then, unlike the Colombian maestro, they veer off course and lose their way en route to the cherished goal. This World Cup will be another attempt to finally arrive at the declared finale of this eternal plot.

England went to the 2026 World Cup in superb form — they are the only European side to have qualified without a single defeat or conceded goal: eight wins in eight matches, 22 goals scored. Against the backdrop of such results, expectations soared so high that there was once again talk of a real chance at the World Cup. However, soon, as often happens in England, the pendulum of public mood swung the other way. The announcement of the team's final squad for the World Cup came as a real shock to the country: the cherished number of 26 did not include stars Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and — what caused particularly much noise — the national team veteran Harry Maguire.

For this reason, expectations before the first match against a strong Croatia, which had once already shattered England's hopes of the title by knocking them out in the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup, were fairly restrained. And for some experts, such as Roy Keane, downright pessimistic:

When I look at the squad, especially in defence, I'm not sure. And I don't want to hear any statistics about what they've done over the last two years — some of the qualifying matches were fairly easy, but I just don't see it in the decisive games, in the quarter-finals or semi-finals — it doesn't matter whether they're behind or ahead.

Roy Keane

Nevertheless, in a fairly tense yet vibrant opening match, the English won 4–2. The first half played out rather nervously for the founders of football — every time they went ahead, the Croatians found the strength to equalise. And the Croatians' first goal, scored by Baturina, will surely be among the best of this tournament. However, in the second half, the English were able to turn the course of the match around and saw it through to victory, in large part thanks to the play of the "Three Lions'" leaders. In the first half, Harry Kane scored a brace and drew level with English football legend Gary Lineker for the number of goals at World Cups (10), and right after the break, Jude Bellingham scored an important third goal that ultimately proved to be the winner. The fourth goal against the Croatian side, scored by Marcus Rashford, was a beautiful full stop to this match.

Perhaps Roy Keane will turn out to be right about the weakness of the defence: in the game against the Croatians, it was not noted for its reliability, as the two goals conceded show. At the same time, the English demonstrated that they have character.

Despite all the anxious moods, the England national team started with a win in a game against their main rival for first place in the group, and for the first time since 2002, beat an opponent ranked in the world's top 15 (Croatia is currently in 11th place), ending a run of nine matches without a win against opponents of such standing.

It seems it's coming home?