Axel Tuanzebe Shines as Congo Holds Portugal to Draw

Axel Tuanzebe walked off the pitch in Houston with a grin that had been missing for months – and Cristiano Ronaldo was the man left wearing the scars.

The two once shared a dressing room at Manchester United, Tuanzebe the eager youngster at Carrington hanging on the words of the global icon. In Texas, sentiment was shelved. The Burnley centre-back led a rugged, disciplined Congo rearguard that shut down Portugal and held one of the greatest goalscorers in history to a bit-part role in a shock draw – Congo’s first World Cup point since 1974.

Ronaldo, 41 and still chasing milestones, found himself crowded, jostled and suffocated by a defender who used to ask him for tips on how to make it at the top. This time, the lesson went the other way.

“Cristiano is still hungry, he still wants to play, he still wants to show everybody how good he is,” Tuanzebe said afterwards. “In the box, he wants to get the goals, he wants to get to that magic number of a thousand.

“He will be disappointed, but that's my job. I'm sure Cristiano, wherever he goes, he'll bring a swarm of fans with him. But ultimately, we're just happy about the result.”

Ronaldo’s frustration came against a backdrop of growing noise about whether time has finally caught up with him, whether this World Cup is one tournament too far. Congo’s organisation and Tuanzebe’s timing did nothing to quiet that debate. Every cross seemed to find a defender first, every half-yard of space closed in a heartbeat.

If Tuanzebe kept his respect, Ngaleyel Mukau didn’t bother with the niceties.

The Congo midfielder went straight for the jugular, praising the legend but making it brutally clear his team did not lose sleep over how to stop him.

“He's one of the greatest to ever play the game. So much respect to him,” Mukau said. “But to be honest, there was no plan, not really, because we know that he isn't the same as before.

“He's a bit older now. When you get old like that, it's not the same effort that you can make.”

Ronaldo still fronted up. He signed autographs, spoke briefly, and summed up the stalemate with the shrug of a man who has seen everything this sport can throw at him.

“What was missing? Nothing was missing, that's football,” he said. “Portugal could have won, but it could also have lost. It could have gone either way.”

On social media, the message was defiant: not the start they wanted, but no sense of surrender. Heads up, onto the next one.

For Tuanzebe, this felt like something more personal. His club season with Burnley ended in relegation and disappointment, a year of struggle in the Premier League. In Houston, under World Cup lights, he finally had something to savour again.

“It's definitely a positive for me personally,” he said. “Getting good results always feels good. And, look, it's a massive tournament. It's the biggest event in the world and we want to perform and do well in it.”

Congo have done more than just arrive. They have announced themselves.

The draw with Portugal has cracked Group dynamics wide open and sharpened the mood inside their camp. One more win, from games against Colombia and Uzbekistan, would likely send them into the knockouts. They can feel it.

“Our mission now is to qualify,” Tuanzebe said. “We need one win, we've got two games to do that, to get the three points. And we're definitely going to go one hundred per cent at it, whether it be Colombia or Uzbekistan.

“We’re going to go flat out and try to get it done sooner rather than later. So, yeah, we'll be recovering now and getting ready for that game.”

Ronaldo will move on, chasing that next goal, that next number. Tuanzebe will move with him in a very different direction, no longer the apprentice, now the man who helped turn a World Cup group on its head.

The next 90 minutes will reveal whether this was a one-off shock – or the start of Congo’s greatest football story.