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 2022 edition when he scored just one goal in Qatar and had to exit the tournament in tears after losing to Morocco in the quarter-finals. His goal drought in major competitions continued when he went goalless at Euro 2024 and lost to Portugal in the quarter-finals against France.
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Meanwhile, Congo is entering the World Cup after 52 years. But their off-pitch problems took a turn for the worse when Congo declared an Ebola outbreak on May 15. They then had to move their training camp to Belgium and before entering the United States, the players had to maintain a 21-day bubble outside the country. Still, a positive result against 2016 Euro champions Portugal would go a long way to put a smile on the faces of their fans.
Follow COD against POR Live score And FIFA World Cup updates below.
Bruno Fernandes of Portugal celebrates after scoring his team’s second goal during an international friendly soccer match between Portugal and Chile in Oeiras, Saturday, June 6, 2026, outside Lisbon. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Why does Bruno Fernandes and not Cristiano Ronaldo hold the key to Portugal’s World Cup?
Bruno Fernandes once had a coach who told him that if he wanted to be a top player, he should be a central defender, and if he wanted to be just a good player, he should be a midfielder. Bruno chose the latter and is now proving his prediction wrong and showing that sometimes it’s best to listen to one’s instincts. “I wanted to be the best of them all. And if I need to nutmeg someone, I’ll do it – I don’t care,” he said on the Manchester United podcast in 2020. (read more)
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