Cristiano Ronaldo will start from the first minute as Portugal open the 2026 World Cup against DR Congo.
Portugal and DR Congo have now confirmed their starting line-ups ahead of their meeting in Houston on Wednesday night – a match that marks the start of Group K and probably Cristiano Ronaldo’s last World Cup final.
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The Selecao, with two semi-final places on their resume, completed an uneven qualification but finished with a bang as they crushed Armenia 9-1 at home. With the 41-year-old world star Cristiano Ronaldo at the helm, the Portuguese field one of the tournament’s strongest squads by far.
DR Congo, also known as the Leopards, knocked out both Cameroon and Nigeria in qualifying before securing their World Cup ticket with a dramatic extra-time win over Jamaica in Zapopan.
The match is the first in Group K, which continues with Uzbekistan against Colombia in Mexico City on Thursday
World Cup 2026: Portugal’s confirmed squad against DR Congo
Portugal’s starting eleven: D. Costa; Cancelo, Araujo, Veiga, Mendes; Fernandes, Neves, Vitinha; Silva, Ronaldo, Neto.
Portugal’s substitutes: Sá, Silva, Semedo, Dias, Dalot, Inácio, S. Costa, Nunes, Neves, Ramos, Félix, Trincão, Leão, Guedes, Conceição.
World Cup 2026: DR Congo’s complete squad against Portugal
DR Congo’s starting eleven: Mpasi Nazu; Wan-Bissaka, Tuanzebe, Mbemba, Kapuadi, Masuaku; Mukau, Moutoussamy, Kayembe; Wissa, Bakambu.
DR Congo’s substitutes: Fayulu, Epolo, Batubinsika, Kayembe, Kalulu, Mbuku, Bongonda, Sadiki, Tshibola, Pickel, Cipenga, Kakuta, Elia, Mayele, Banza.
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World Cup 2026: Portugal vs DR Congo – statistics
- Since Portugal’s best World Cup finish – third place in 1966 – their only other semi-final has been in 2006, where they were eliminated by France before losing the bronze final to host nation Germany.
- Portugal is one of five European teams to have participated in every World Cup since 2002, along with England, France, Germany and Spain.
- They have reached the playoffs in four of their last five World Cup tournaments and scored in 10 of their last 11 World Cup games, with the exception being the quarter-final loss to Morocco in 2022.
- Ronaldo is the only player to have scored in five World Cup finals, and could be the only one – potentially alongside Lionel Messi – to participate in six editions.
- Selecao coach Roberto Martínez is in his third World Cup as head coach, having led Belgium to third place in 2018 and a group stage exit in 2022.
- Martínez is the third non-Portuguese coach to lead the team in a World Cup final, after Brazilians Otto Glória and Luiz Felipe Scolari.
- Only Wales (64 years, between 1958 and 2022), Egypt (56 years, between 1934 and 1990) and Norway (56 years, between 1938 and 1994) have had longer absences between World Cup participations than DR Congo.
- Only Bolivia (first 5 games), Canada and Greece (first 4 games) have played more World Cup games before their first goal than DR Congo, who have yet to score in the World Cup.
- Including the play-offs, ten of DR Congo’s 13 qualifying matches were draws (2) or decided by a one-goal margin (6 wins, 2 losses), and they kept a clean sheet in eight of their 13 games.
- In African qualifying, only Gambia and Gabon (3 each) had more players with at least six assists than DR Congo. Cédric Bakambu (4 goals, 2 assists) and Wissa (3 goals, 3 assists) contributed six each.
- Desabre is in his third championship as DR Congo coach. The French led them to fourth place in the AFCON 2023 and the last eight of the 2025 edition.
