Cristiano Ronaldo will spearhead Portugal’s problem on the World Cup which begins this afternoon in opposition to DR Congo.
The 41-year-old stays the primary selection within the quantity 9 function for boss Roberto Martinez and might be hoping for a wonderful efficiency to silence people who imagine Portugal can be stronger with out him.
Two-time African champions DR Congo are making their second look on the World Cup, having misplaced three video games in 1974, once they had been referred to as Zaire.
“Our path to qualification was fairly tough,” mentioned head coach Sebastien DesabreIt, discussing a run that additionally included seven wins, a draw and two defeats to complete two factors behind automated qualifiers Senegal throughout the preliminary stage. “It was a do-or-die state of affairs [against Jamaica].”
That is the primary match in Group Okay, which continues when Uzbekistan meet Colombia in Mexico Metropolis on Thursday (03:00 BST).
The place to observe Portugal v DR Congo: TV channel, reside on-line streams
Kick-off on Wednesday is at 18:00 BST (13:00 ET / 10:00 PT). Within the UK, reside protection is on BBC One.
Streaming on an enormous vary of units is offered via the BBC iPlayer app and BBC Sport web site.
World Cup 2026: Portugal v DR Congo stats
- Since Portugal’s greatest ever World Cup end – third place in 1966 – their solely different semi-final look has been in 2006, exiting in opposition to France earlier than shedding the third-place match to hosts Germany
- Portugal are considered one of 5 European groups to have made an look at each World Cup
since 2002, alongside England, France, Germany and Spain - They’ve reached the knockout stage at 4 of the final 5 World Cup tournaments and scored in 10 of their final 11 matches on the finals, the exception being their 1-0 quarter-final defeat to Morocco in 2022
- Ronaldo is the one participant to have scored at 5 World Cup tournaments and will turn into the one participant – doubtlessly alongside Lionel Messi – to seem at six editions
- Selecao head coach Roberto Martínez is at his third World Cup as a head coach, having guided Belgium to a third-place end in 2018 and a group-stage exit in 2022
- Martinez is the third non-Portuguese head coach to guide the staff on the finals, after Brazilians Otto Gloria and Luiz Felipe Scolari
- Solely Wales (64 years, between 1958 and 2022), Egypt (56 years, between 1934 and 1990) and Norway (56 years, between 1938 and 1994) have had longer gaps in successive World Cup participations than DR Congo
- Solely Bolivia (first 5 video games), Canada and Greece (first 4 video games) have performed extra video games on the match earlier than scoring their first objective than DR Congo, who’re but to open their account
- Together with play-offs, 10 of DR Congo’s 13 qualifying matches had been drawn (2) or determined by a one-goal margin (6 wins, 2 losses), whereas holding a clear sheet in eight of their 13 matches
- In African qualifying, solely Gambia and Gabon (3 every) had extra gamers with at the very least six objective involvements than DR Congo, for whom Cedric Bakambu (4 targets, 2 assists) and Wissa (3 targets, 3 assists) contributed six every
- Desabre is at his third main match accountable for DR Congo, who the Frenchman guided them to fourth place on the 2023 AFCON and the spherical of 16 on the 2025 version
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