FIFA World Cup 2026: Cristiano Ronaldo pales in front of Messi’s hat-trick, pain spills over when Portugal’s match against Congo is drawn

Houston: The start of the sixth World Cup football tournament was very disappointing for Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the world’s greatest footballers. While on one hand, great players like Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe performed brilliantly in their very first match, on the other hand, Ronaldo’s team Portugal had to play a 1-1 draw against an underestimated team like Congo. Ronaldo himself admitted that he did not expect such a bad start at all.

Messi and Mbappe shine, Ronaldo misses

Star forwards from all over the world have shone in the opening matches of the current Football World Cup, due to which Ronaldo’s flop is surprising the fans even more.

Argentina captain Lionel Messi created a sensation by scoring a brilliant hat-trick in his very first match of the tournament. Star players like Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, Vinicius Junior, Christian Pulisic and Victor Gyokres scored goals to lead their teams to victory. Ronaldo looked completely colorless in this match and missed many important chances to score goals.

With their participation in this match, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have joined the select players in the world who have achieved the honor of playing 6 World Cup tournaments.

Ronaldo’s message on ‘X’ (Twitter) after the match

After the match was over, Ronaldo maintained distance from the media, but expressed his feelings on the social media platform ‘X’ and encouraged the fans. He wrote that “It was not at all the start we all wanted, but the game is not over yet. We have to keep our courage and concentrate completely on the next match.”

Will the coach put Ronaldo on the bench?

When Portugal head coach Roberto Martínez was asked whether he was considering keeping Ronaldo out of the starting playing eleven, he rejected the idea outright. Martínez said, “It would be foolish to keep the world’s greatest scorer off the field when the team needs goals most. Cristiano’s experience is extremely important and invaluable to our team in this big tournament.”