They came to see Cristiano Ronaldo, perhaps expecting feats to rival Lionel Messi’s remarkable display the night before. Ronaldo’s many followers in Houston did their best to summon a meaningful contribution from their idol but ultimately there were 16 players infinitely more deserving of acclaim. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could have folded after falling behind to João Neves’s early goal but recovered brilliantly to salvage a historic draw on their return to the World Cup, Yoane Wissa’s leveller followed by a triumph of defensive discipline and resolve.
Roberto Martínez kept Ronaldo on the pitch for all 95 minutes but, beyond two half-chances midway through the second period, his contribution was minimal and did little to assuage concerns that his presence is a potentially crippling millstone.
The roar when Ronaldo first took possession as the clock struck two minutes, thrilling the masses with a sideways pass to João Cancelo, underlined who a giant swathe of those present had arrived to witness. Texans had embraced their dalliance with football celebrity even if the journey to the stadium, through part-flooded roads for anyone driving from downtown, proved a challenge amid torrential morning rain.
Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa who had facilitated Ronaldo’s eligibility for this match by suspending the final two matches of a three-game ban, was among those to arrive on time. Soon enough the thousands in red shirts, an uncommonly high percentage decorated with the number seven, could rise to their feet again. Neves may not be a household name here but his firmly planted header, after he reached Pedro Neto’s cross ahead of a leaden Axel Tuanzebe, left the keeper Lionel Mpassi standing as it zipped into his left corner.
It was exactly the start the DRC must have feared. Their backing here was restricted to small pockets of mostly expatriate fans, the 21-day Ebola-enforced quarantine imposed on visitors to the US from their homeland having proved prohibitive for most. Sébastien Desabre’s team had themselves been forced to prepare in a Belgium-based bubble before arriving in Houston, where they are based for the tournament and were warmly received last week.
They had barely left their own half when Neves scored but began to flicker, Wissa bobbling a shot wide and his strike partner Cédric Bakambu seeing a strike deflected away. Portugal were in enough of a game for Ronaldo to remonstrate heavily upon seeing Bernardo Silva booked, a resulting rebuke from the referee Abdulrahman Al-Jassim drawing boos when shown on the big screen.
When Nuno Mendes threatened to finish a burst down the left, Aaron Wan-Bissaka effectively kept the contest alive with a perfect intervention. The tempo was hardly breakneck, Portugal controlling matters consummately enough and Ronaldo briefly perking up when an apologetic Cancelo centred too far in front. Wan-Bissaka again snuffed out a Mendes break and an experienced DRC back line was occasionally living on its wits.
But this was nothing like the DRC side, then known as Zaire, that flopped so infamously on their last World Cup appearance in 1974. They had clawed a foothold in the game and, with the first half’s final action, it became a heaving leg up. A shot from the midfielder Samuel Moutoussamy had brought a couple of corners and the second, taken short, offered Arthur Masuaku the angle to deliver from the right. Wissa, unmarked and leaping high, was there to meet the ball in with a header that crashed into the roof of Diogo Costa’s net and spark celebratory dances by the touchline.
Portugal had paid for settling into a languid pace that, even if it meant Ronaldo was not forced to overexert from the periphery, gave their opponents encouragement. Soon after the restart Costa was required to parry Bakambu’s angled effort and Martínez, who had introduced Francisco Conceição for Bernardo Silva at the interval, needed his players to wake up.
They were buoyed by the novel spectacle of the DRC taking too long over a goal kick and being punished by the concession of a corner. But it came to nothing, as did an acrobatic effort from Conceição that beat Mpassi but was ruled out for offside. Portugal were barely stretching the DRC and the outlandish thought persisted that some movement up front might help.
When Ronaldo’s chance finally arrived, the busy Conceição having broken into space on the right of the box, the cutback was slightly behind him and the resulting shot stubbed wide. The move was almost exactly repeated after the second-half hydration break, much to the agony of Ronaldo’s baying public.
They ramped up the volume and Portugal, sensing tiredness in the DRC, sought to turn the screw. Bakambu, spooning over after a promising counter, missed a chance to stun them; Martínez responded by rolling the dice again but Vitinha, not Ronaldo, was sacrificed for Gonçalo Ramos. A speculative Bruno Fernandes shot was the closest they came to a winner.
