Cristiano Ronaldo opened his sixth World Cup with a scoreless night as Portugal settled for a 1-1 draw with Congo on Wednesday, leaving him one goal short of a milestone no player has reached before. The result also denied Portugal the clean start Ronaldo wanted in a tournament that has now carried him across two decades.
The missed chance was immediate and plain. Ronaldo sent a shot wide in the 68th minute and another in the 73rd, then finished the match without scoring in his 229th appearance for Portugal. He and Lionel Messi are now the only players to appear in six World Cups, but while others opened this year by scoring on their first tournament outings, Ronaldo walked off without joining them.
That contrast is what makes the draw land harder. Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Vinícius Júnior, Christian Pulisic, Viktor Gyökeres and Harry Kane all scored in their first World Cup appearances this year, while Ronaldo’s own first match in the sixth tournament ended with only near misses. His best World Cup remains 2006, when Portugal reached the semifinals, and the gap between that run and this opening night was impossible to miss.
Portugal’s coach said there was no logic in taking him off because the team needed goals, and said his finishing and the way he pulls defenders remain important. Congo, for its part, held the line by treating Ronaldo as a player who no longer gets the same space he once did, and by making the most of a defense that stayed organized when the chances came.
Ronaldo sounded ready to move on quickly. Posting on X after the match, he said it was not the start he wanted but far from over, and urged himself and his teammates to keep their heads up and focus on the next match. That is the story now: the record sixth World Cup is already his, but the goal that would have made the night historic is still waiting.
