In England’s first match of FIFA World Cup 2026 (against Croatia), captain Harry Kane joined the league of elite forwards currently active at the World Cup to score two or more goals in their team’s opening game. It’s an elite group that includes Argentina’s Lionel Messi (hat-trick against Algeria), Norway’s Erling Haaland (two goals against Iraq), France’s Kylian Mbappe (two goals against Senegal) and Germany’s Kai Havertz (two goals against Curacao). Not yet joining the group is Cristiano Ronaldo, who had a poor performance against Congo, going goalless after taking just two shots the entire game. Congo held Ronaldo’s Portugal

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Read 3 minutesUpdated: June 18, 2026 07:06 AM IST Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal endured a forgettable night in their Group K opener at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Houston as DR Congo held the UEFA Nations League holders to a 1-1 draw in Houston. The Portugal captain was a pale shadow of his former self, with no authority up front throughout the match, where he barely managed to score. Ronaldo’s threats meant he managed just three attempts in 90 minutes, with each of his three strikes flying wide of the target. After the match, the 41-year-old faced a lot

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Harry Kane’s career has been defined by his late-stage urgency. Going to Bayern in search of a trophy, the first season was barren. What followed was a gradual upsurge which turned into titles and the overwhelming admiration of the public of Munich, who were fascinated by the tireless work of the English. Kane at Bayern has been a revelation – dropping deep into midfield, being an elite ball distributor, maintaining an intelligent press. And it hasn’t come at the cost of goals (almost a game). He was already England’s greatest striker before this move, but he has become a complete

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Otherwise based on socialist ideals, football has long been portrayed as a capitalistic enterprise with talent. His icons constantly challenge the idea that, with the ball at their feet, all men are equal—some more equal than others. As a result, attention is never evenly distributed. Diego Armando Maradona was not the leading goalscorer at the 1986 World Cup and Pele was not victorious in any of the three editions. On Tuesday, three men demanded attention – Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland. His performance proved why he did so – seven goals from the trio. On Wednesday, the spotlight

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Read 6 minutesUpdated: June 18, 2026 02:14 AM IST with Portugal, their 1-1 draw against Democratic Republic of Congo Newcastle United striker Yone Visa scored a first-half injury-time equalizer for Congo to give Portugal the lead in the sixth minute of their Group K match at Houston Stadium in the country’s first FIFA World Cup match in 52 years. In 2021, Visa suffered an acid attack at his home in Lorient, France, where he was playing for French club Lorient FC. The incident happened just days before he joined Premier League side Brentford for a record £8.5 million deal and

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Read 3 minutes17 Jun 2026 08:12 PM IST Germany captain Joshua Kimmich opened up about the snake problem at his base camp in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on Tuesday. “In Germany, you worry about tactics, injuries and your next opponent. Here you also have to think about what’s hidden in the grass,” Kimmich said. According to the BBC, the snake the Germans encountered was a copperhead, a venomous species found in the state of North Carolina. “We saw a snake yesterday, we were told it was poisonous. If you get bitten, you have to go to the hospital. I don’t think

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Read 3 minutesUpdated: June 17, 2026 09:05 PM IST In the 32nd minute. Argentina lead 1-0. Messi, challenging for the ball, studs Algeria captain Aissa Mandi on the right calf, Mandi going down in pain. Polish referee Simon Marciniak awarded the foul. No card. VAR did not intervene. Messi apologized. Mandi received treatment and continued on. Messi then scored twice more in the second half, completing his first hat-trick in six World Cups and equaling Miroslav Klose’s all-time tournament record of 16 goals. This incident overshadowed the result even before nightfall. On ESPN, former Venezuela international Alejandro Moreno was unequivocal.

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Read for 5 minutesUpdated: June 17, 2026 08:54 PM IST On a boulevard near 42nd Street in Times Square, a group of Colombians, their nation’s flag wrapped around their bodies, watched the Argentina-Algeria game on smartphones. They had come thinking it was a free watch party. There was no one there. Fashion advertisements flashed across monstrous billboards; Most sports bars and pubs were full. So they had their own watch party — on the street, with their phones. A swarm of Argentines joined them, miniature World Cup trophies in hand, cutting the gap between them and uniting a five-foot-seven silhouette.

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Portugal vs DR Congo FIFA World Cup 2026 Live Score: POR Open World Cup Campaign vs COD in Houston. FIFA World Cup 2026 Match Today Live Score: After Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick and kicked off Argentina’s World Cup campaign with a 3-0 win over Algeria, it will now be up to rivals Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal to open their match against DR Congo with a positive result in Houston on Wednesday. Ronaldo, who won the Saudi Premier League for the first time since his transfer to Al Nasser in 2023, will try to shake off the ghost of the

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Last week, a bus got stuck at their training ground in Zapopan. The driver took a wrong turn somewhere in the suburbs of Guadalajara, then another, and eventually the players grabbed their bags and walked to where they needed to be. World Cup team, hiking. This is Czechia. Two days earlier on the morning of March 24, 2026 Czechia As the Republic of Ireland played in the World Cup playoffs in Prague, police arrived at the headquarters of the Czech Football Association at six in the morning. Investigators from the National Center Against Organized Crime, supported by regional units, Europol

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