Football Stars Shine in 2026 World Cup Qualifiers, Ronaldo Struggles

Houston. On Tuesday, three big football superstars shone in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Kylian Mbappé became France's all-time top scorer with two goals against Senegal.

After that, Norway's Erling Haaland made his World Cup 'debut' excellent with two goals in the win against Iraq.

Lionel Messi gave an even better performance with a hat-trick for Argentina against Algeria. With this, he reached the top position jointly in the list of top scorers in World Cup history with Germany's Miroslav Klose.

Wednesday was an opportunity for Cristiano Ronaldo to make his mark in this competition, but Portugal's captain could not perform like other stars. Ronaldo struggled to make an impact in the game as Portugal drew 1-1 with DR Congo. He missed the chance to make history by becoming the first player to score in six consecutive World Cups.

Former Premier League striker Chris Sutton criticized coach Roberto Martinez's decision. Sutton was unhappy that the 41-year-old Ronaldo, who has played 229 matches for his country and scored 143 goals, was kept on the field for the entire duration of the match in Houston.

When striker Gonçalo Ramos replaced midfielder Vítinha in the 83rd minute, Sutton said, 'Martinez's move is shameful. It might yield results, but are we all watching a different game?'

'The coach is afraid to take him off the field. He is not a real coach. Ronaldo might score the winning goal, but his impact was not seen in today's game.'

Before the match started, former England captain Wayne Rooney joked that his former teammate Ronaldo might have become aggressively positive after seeing the excellent performances of other stars the previous day.

Speaking on BBC One, Rooney said, 'This is how he has always pushed himself forward. He has a mentality of taking everything as a challenge.'

'In the past years, he and Messi have constantly pressured each other to reach this level.'

'He wants to be the best, and that's not a bad thing. Today he will want to prove he is still at that high level by coming onto the field and scoring two or three goals.'

But Portugal's first group stage match did not go as planned for Ronaldo and his much-talked-about teammates. In the sixth minute of the game, João Neves of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) gave Portugal the lead with an excellent header from Pedro Neto's cross.

Just before the end of the first half, Newcastle forward Yoane Wissa equalized for DR Congo with a header. Although Portugal had 75 percent ball possession, they only managed seven attempts at goal. Of these, only Neves's shot was 'on target'.

Al Nassr striker Ronaldo, who is close to 1,000 goals for club and country, had two good chances in the middle of the second half.

Francisco Conceição, who came on in the second half, provided him with two excellent passes from the right.

The first pass was a bit behind Ronaldo, and his weak shot went wide of the post. In the second chance, although the ball was in a very good position, his shot went wide of the post after the DR Congo defense created pressure.

With this, Ronaldo has not scored in 10 consecutive matches in major international tournaments.

Among Portugal's 'outfield' players who spent the entire match on the field, he touched the ball the least, only 25 times.

After the match, Rooney said, 'His statistics may not always be excellent. He needs opportunities. If he gets good chances, he will definitely score.'

Rooney, along with other BBC analysts Gaël Clichy and Olivier Giroud, expressed the opinion that the possibility of scoring would have been higher if Conceição had taken the shot himself instead of passing to Ronaldo.

Meanwhile, former French player Thierry Henry, speaking on 'Fox Sports', said that the potential pass to Bruno Fernandes, who was in space near the penalty area, was stopped due to Ronaldo's run.

Henry said, 'If Ronaldo had gone inside the six-yard box, the defender would have had to follow him, and Fernandes could have easily tapped in the goal.'

'He wants to score himself, so he stands in the path of the pass.'

'All I'm saying is - the team needs a goal, not you.'

Former French full-back Clichy opined that due to Ronaldo's superstar image, the performance of his teammates might be unintentionally affected.

Speaking to BBC One, he said, 'Before the match, we said Ronaldo would help the young players with his personality and experience. But sometimes, such big players unintentionally draw too much attention to themselves.'

'In the first instance, if Ronaldo hadn't been there, Conceição might have tried to score himself.'

'I have experienced this with some players when I was at Arsenal and Manchester City. When there is a very important player in the team, he unintentionally takes away opportunities and freedom from other players.'

'I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but when such a player is taken off the field, you can see other players taking responsibility and playing.'

Clarifying that it is not Ronaldo's fault alone for such a situation, Clichy added, 'This is natural, and the coach's decision is important at such times. Because during a 90-minute game, on one hand, we are thinking if the coach will take him off, and on the other hand, we know he can score at any moment.'

'But at the same time, we have also seen that because he is on the field, the team's game sometimes cannot be natural.'

BBC