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 hattrick and helped Argentina start their World Cup campaign with a bang with a 3-0 demolition of Algeria, the onus will now be on rival Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal to open their encounter with DR Congo on Wednesday in Houston with a positive result.Ronaldo, who finally won the Saudi Premier League for the first time after his transfer to Al Nassr in 2023, will look to banish the ghosts of the 2022 edition when he scored just one goal in Qatar and had to leave the tournament in tears after losing to Morocco in the quarterfinals. His goal-scoring drought in major competitions continued in 2024 when he went goal-less in the Euro and Portugal were eliminated in the quarterfinal by France.Story continues below this adCongo, meanwhile, are coming into the World Cup after 52 years. But their off-pitch problems took a turn for the worse when an Ebola outbreak was declared in Congo on May 15. They then had to relocate their training camp to Belgium and before entering the United States, the players will have to maintain a 21-day bubble outside the country. Still, a positive result against 2016 Euro champions Portugal will go a long way in putting smiles on faces of their fans.FOLLOW POR vs COD LIVE SCORE AND UPDATES FROM THE FIFA WORLD CUP BELOW.Live UpdatesPortugal's Bruno Fernandes celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during an international friendly soccer match between Portugal and Chile in Oeiras, outside Lisbon, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)Bruno Fernandes once had a coach who told him that if he wanted to be a top player, he should be a central defender, while if he just wanted to be a good player, he should be a midfielder. Bruno ended up choosing the latter and is now proving his prediction wrong and showing that sometimes it’s better to listen to one’s instincts. “I wanted to be the best out of all of them. And if I need to do a nutmeg on someone, I will do it – I don’t care,” he said in a Manchester United podcast in 2020. (READ MORE)© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd