The 2026 FIFA World Cup delivered a historic opening 48 hours that saw three of men’s football’s biggest icons hit career-defining milestones, only for the sport’s most decorated goalscorer to see his shot at history end in stalemate and scrutiny.
On Tuesday, the tournament’s opening day of group stage play served up a trio of landmark performances. Kylian Mbappe struck twice against Senegal to overtake every French striker in history to become his nation’s all-time leading goalscorer at the World Cup. Erling Haaland, making his long-awaited World Cup debut for Norway, matched Mbappe’s two-goal haul to inspire a winning start against Iraq. Not to be outdone, Lionel Messi netted a hat-trick against Algeria to draw level with Miroslav Klose as the competition’s all-time joint top goalscorer.
That stunning opening act set the stage for Cristiano Ronaldo to write his own chapter of history when Portugal kicked off their Group stage campaign against DR Congo on Wednesday. Aged 41 years and 132 days, Ronaldo already made history by becoming the oldest outfield player to start a World Cup match, and he entered the game with a chance to become the first player ever to find the net at six different World Cup tournaments. But the Al-Nassr forward failed to convert two clear second-half opportunities, and Portugal were forced to settle for a disappointing 1-1 draw that earned DR Congo their first ever World Cup point.
Portugal got off to a promising start, with Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Joao Neves putting them ahead in the sixth minute with a clinical header from Pedro Neto’s left-wing cross. But DR Congo responded before the break, when Newcastle forward Yoane Wissa nodded home a well-earned equaliser. Despite dominating possession for the full 90 minutes – finishing with 75% of the ball – Portugal only managed seven total attempts on goal, with just Neves’ opener hitting the target.
As the match stretched into the second half, Ronaldo, who had gone nine consecutive major tournament matches without a goal dating back to the 2022 World Cup, grew increasingly desperate to break his drought. Midway through the half, substitute Francisco Conceicao delivered two cutbacks from the right flank directly into Ronaldo’s path. The first chance sat slightly behind the captain, who could only push a weak effort past the near post. The second fell into a better position, but a tight mark from DR Congo’s defence forced Ronaldo’s finish to fly well wide of the target.
One of those missed chances sparked sharp criticism from pundits, after Ronaldo blocked off a clearer opening for Bruno Fernandes to reach a cutback. Former France forward Thierry Henry, commentating for Fox Sports, called out Ronaldo’s selfishness in the moment. “If he goes into the six-yard box, the defender would have had to follow him and it would have been a tap-in for Fernandes,” Henry explained. “Because he wants to score, he goes into the path of the pass. That’s my thing – the team needs to score, not you.”
Much of the post-match analysis also centered on Portugal manager Roberto Martinez’s decision to leave Ronaldo on the pitch for the full 90 minutes, even as the star struggled to influence play. He finished the match with just 25 touches – the lowest total of any Portuguese outfield player who played the full game. Former Premier League striker Chris Sutton, commentating for BBC Radio 5 Live, labelled the decision embarrassing after Martinez made an 83rd-minute substitution that replaced a midfielder rather than the out-of-form Ronaldo. “That’s embarrassing from Martinez. It might work but are we all watching a different game? He’s scared to take him off. He’s not the manager. [Ronaldo] may end up scoring the winner but the game has passed him by today,” Sutton said.
Before kick-off, former Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney had predicted that Ronaldo would be motivated by the previous day’s historic hauls from Messi and Mbappe, noting that the veteran’s competitive mentality had driven him and Messi to push each other to unprecedented career heights. “That’s how he’s pushed himself and his mentality is that everything is a challenge for him. Over the years, him and Messi have pushed each other to get to these levels. He wants to be the best and that’s not in a bad way. He’ll want to go out there and score two or three tonight to show he’s still at that level,” Rooney told BBC One. After the final whistle, Rooney defended Ronaldo, arguing that “His stats will never be the best. What he needs is chances. If he gets good chances, he’ll score goals.”
Other pundits pointed to a broader dynamic at play, noting that Ronaldo’s superstar status can unconsciously alter the decision-making of his younger teammates. Former France full-back Gael Clichy observed that on Conceicao’s first good chance, the winger chose to pass to Ronaldo rather than taking a shooting opportunity that was open to him. “Sometimes unconsciously those kinds of players can kind of take too much light,” Clichy explained. “In the first chance, maybe if it was not Ronaldo, [Conceicao] would have had a go at goal. I’ve lived it with some players at Arsenal and Manchester City, where you feel that the player is such an important player, unconsciously he’s taking everything from every player. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but when you take them out, you can see players taking responsibility.” Clichy added that the dynamic is not Ronaldo’s fault, but rather puts greater pressure on the manager to make in-game adjustments that keep the team balanced.
For Ronaldo, the result extends his major tournament scoring drought to 10 straight games, with his last goal at this level coming from a penalty against Ghana at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Portugal will look to bounce back in their remaining group stage matches, while DR Congo will celebrate their first ever point at a men’s World Cup.