“10 men and a statue”? So, Portugal, what happened?

Ronaldo and Roberto Martínez heavily criticized after setback in their World Cup debut. “Portugal is sacrificing another World Cup for Cristiano Ronaldo’s ego”?

By now, everyone already knows: Portugal against debutants DR Congo in the opening game of the 2026 World Cup. Not winning is a tendency that Portugal has already accustomed us to in the opening games: Portugal has not won four of the last five opening games of the World Cup. But this Wednesday’s premiere has a lot to say about it.

The corner team took the lead very early, with a good cross from Pedro Neto, taken advantage of by an even better header from João Neves, after just 6 minutes.

Unfortunately, the early goal scored by the PSG midfielder would be one of the few moments of true offensive quality from the Portuguese team this afternoon.

Portugal quickly calmed down and allowed themselves to equalize at half-time, with a header from Wissa, who appeared alone in the face of Diogo Costa, in a move in which Tomás Araújo admitted guilt.

“The man from DR Congo got in behind my back. I have to be better”, he said, at the end of the game — “trust us that it will work out”, asked the Benfica defender.

The game was, overall, a disappointment for the Portuguese. Despite having possession of the ball for 75% of the game, Portugal only shot on goal once — in João Neves’ early goal. In total, he kicked seven times: the worst record ever at a World Cup, alongside the game against the Republic of Korea in 2002.

The national team was unable to create great opportunities. With this Wednesday’s game, the podium for most back passes in this World Cup it is already completely filled by three Portuguese — João Neves, João Cancelo and Pedro Neto, with 24, 23 and 22, respectively.

Even on the defensive level, the numbers leave contradictory signs: Portugal carried out just 35 defensive actions, according to GoalPoint — a minimum of one team in this World Cup.

DR Congo didn’t produce much either, but was more effective in the way they took advantage of one of the few opportunities. He shot eight times, twice on goal, and created a blatant chance. It was enough for a more than satisfactory result for the Congolese.

“10 men and a statue”

Among several criticisms of Ronaldo’s “lukewarm”, “poor” and “weak” game — which made him the oldest holder of all time in the World Cup, at 41 years and 132 days old — the harshest was perhaps published in the British The Independent, which “Portugal is sacrificing another World Cup for Cristiano Ronaldo’s ego”, comparing him to a “statue” within the four lines.

The captain of the national team was, in fact, very much missing from the game. He touched the ball 25 times, took three shots and missed two obvious goals.

In one of them, at 68, it can be said that he “stole” a golden opportunity from Bruno Fernandes who, for the same reason, knelt down, desperate, right behind Ronaldo:

Five minutes later, Ronaldo wasted a play from a very similar distance, just a few meters from Congo’s goal:

The captain’s passing performance was “clean” (19 of 21 passes — 90.5% effectiveness, 7 successful passes in the final third), although none of them were final passes. They were zero key passes, zero dribbles completed, zero shots on goal in 90 minutes.

Ronaldo has not scored in the final stages for the Seleção since 2022, 10 games ago. But this Wednesday, in CR7’s opinion, “nothing was missing”.

“That’s what football is. Portugal could have won, but also lost”, said the captain of the Portuguese team.

At the end of the game, the captain was the first to leave for the locker room and again did not take part in the flash interview. He only talked about the game in writing, on Instagram.

Ronaldo “is another one to help” and “is no different from the others”, explained a positive João Neves, who liked the game the team played and maintains confidence in the group.

DR Congo did not prepare a plan to stop Ronaldo

Apparently, the DR Congo already knew that Ronaldo would not be a significant threat. The Congolese have not prepared any specific plan to stop Ronaldo, whose age is already taking its toll.

When asked about the team’s preparation to stop the Portuguese star, Ngal’ayel Mukau, midfielder from DR Congo, that “no” there was a specific plan for Ronaldo.

“Quite honestly, not really. He’s not the same as before, he’s a little older“, said the midfielder, highlighting that Cristiano is one of the greatest ever to play the game and that he has “a lot of respect” for the 41-year-old player.

“When you get to that age, it’s not the same. You can’t make the same efforts”, explained the Congolese international.

Martinez Mexidas

Despite the low yield, Ronaldo didn’t come out and played the 90 minutes. According to Martínez, “it didn’t make sense” to remove the top scorer in a game that required a goal. For Gonçalo Ramos to come in, Vitinha left, in the same game in which the PSG midfielder broke competition records in successful passes, successful long passes and actions with the ball.

When the game called for creativity and shots, Nélson Semedo came on for Nuno Mendes, and Cancelo went to the left side of the defense and João Félix stayed on the bench. “Tell your coach to put you on more often,” former Portuguese international Ricardo Quaresma told him post-match.

“We don’t need to win the World Cup”, said Martínez, analyzing the game: “we need to play well”.

Only twice has a team been world champion after drawing the opening game. And just two more after losing the first game.