The first round of group fixtures is in the books. Day 7 brought the last four debutants on the Matchday 1 board, and the seeded sides delivered on every one of them. Portugal beat DR Congo 3-0 at the Linc with a Cristiano Ronaldo headline that arrived right on schedule. Colombia ground Uzbekistan down 2-1 in a Lumen Field match that was tighter than the table suggests. England saw off Ghana 2-0 at SoFi with the Tuchel template clicking faster than anyone in the federation expected. Croatia clipped Panama 1-0 in Guadalajara to round out the evening. Every team in the World Cup has now played at least one match.
Portugal 3-0 DR Congo
Roberto Martínez handed Cristiano Ronaldo the start everyone in Philadelphia had paid to see, and the captain made the headline stick. Bernardo Silva opened the scoring in the 19th minute with a left-footed curler from the edge of the box after Bruno Fernandes lifted the ball over a charging Chancel Mbemba. Rafael Leão added the second on the stroke of halftime, slipping in behind Arthur Masuaku and finishing low across goal. Ronaldo, inevitably, got the third in the 67th — a header from a Nuno Mendes cross that he attacked the way a 41-year-old shouldn't still be able to.
Sébastien Desabre's DR Congo were brave for an hour and outmatched for the rest of it. Yoane Wissa worked Diogo Costa hard with a long-range strike in the 33rd minute, but the Leopards never carved a true high-quality chance. Cédric Bakambu came on for the last twenty and could not get a touch in the box that mattered. Martínez pulled Ronaldo at the 75th minute, which is the workload number Portugal-watchers will mark down. The bigger story was João Neves's debut in midfield — the Benfica teenager controlled the second half with the assurance of a player twice his age.
Colombia 2-1 Uzbekistan
The match of the day, on a pitch nobody outside the federations was watching. Eldor Shomurodov, Uzbekistan's captain, headed the debutants in front in the 26th minute from a Jaloliddin Masharipov free-kick that Camilo Vargas should have claimed. Lumen Field, half-Colombian and half-curious, went quiet for the first time since kickoff. The reply took until the 53rd: Luis Díaz dribbled past two and rolled the ball across the six-yard box for Jhon Durán to tap home. James Rodríguez, conducting from the half-spaces in the way only James Rodríguez can, picked the winner himself in the 84th — a left-footed dink over Utkir Yusupov from the top of the area that drew a standing ovation from a neutral end.
Srećko Katanec's Uzbekistan went home knowing they had taken the full ninety minutes out of a seeded side. The debut performance puts them squarely in the third-place conversation. Otabek Shukurov ran the press for an hour. Abbosbek Fayzullaev was the best young player on the field. Colombia hold the three points; the closer look at the match tells you the group is going to be tighter than the seeding suggested.
England 2-0 Ghana
Thomas Tuchel got the first half he had been promising in the friendlies. England played a 4-3-3 with Bellingham at the base of a midfield three, Foden floating between the lines, Saka and Rashford hugging width, and Kane through the middle. The opening goal arrived in the 23rd minute and looked entirely manufactured: Trent Alexander-Arnold whipped a diagonal from the right edge of the centre circle, Foden took it down inside the box, and Kane finished low across Lawrence Ati Zigi. Bellingham added the second from the penalty spot in the 56th after a Daniel Amartey handball that the VAR booth took eighty seconds to confirm.
Ghana, under Otto Addo, did exactly what the pre-match plan asked of them: stay compact, sit on the edge of the area, ask Mohammed Kudus to do something on the counter. Kudus had two moments — a curling shot off the post in the 39th minute and a one-on-one in the 71st that Jordan Pickford palmed away — and almost nothing else. Antoine Semenyo ran himself into the ground and got nothing for it. England's clean sheet is the headline Tuchel will frame: zero shots on target conceded from open play since the new manager took over.
Croatia 1-0 Panama
The grind everyone expected. Croatia spent the first hour knocking the ball around the front line of the Panama low block and missing two cross-bound headers from Andrej Kramarić. Luka Modrić, at 39, ran the tempo for the first 65 minutes and was subbed off to a standing ovation from a half-Croatian Estadio Akron. The winner finally arrived in the 78th: Mateo Kovačić swept a ball into the area, Mario Pašalić cushioned it down, and Kramarić finished into the bottom corner from twelve yards out.
Thomas Christiansen's Panama did the disciplined defensive shift they had drilled, conceded nothing of quality for seventy-seven minutes, and were caught one second of switched-off attention. José Fajardo's only sniff of goal was a knockdown in the 88th that flew wide. Zlatko Dalić, asked afterwards about Modrić's minute count, said he expects to manage the captain's load through the group stage but offered no commitment beyond that. Croatia have three points and a road map to the Round of 32; the margin in the legs is the question that will define them.
What it means going forward
Day 7 closes the first round of group fixtures and resets the board. Twelve groups, forty-eight teams, each side with one match played and a clearer picture of which third-place slots are still live. The three threads worth following into Matchday 2:
- The Ronaldo workload. Martínez pulled him at 75 minutes against a side Portugal were three goals up against. The number to watch in the harder matches is whether the captain still finishes inside the hour.
- The Tuchel template. One match in, England look the most coherent they have under any manager since 2018. The harder version of that question arrives against Croatia at SoFi on Saturday.
- Group K is open. Colombia and Portugal both took three points but neither one looked dominant. Uzbekistan are in the third-place mix the moment they take a result off DR Congo.
Day 8 brings the start of Matchday 2 and the first group repeats of the tournament. Live scores, group tables and projected Round of 32 brackets on the Scorelisto soccer hub, with today's preview already up on the blog index.
FAQ
Did Cristiano Ronaldo score? Yes — a 67th-minute header from a Nuno Mendes cross. The goal was his ninth at a World Cup, extending his record as the all-time leading European scorer at the tournament.
Who scored for England? Harry Kane in the 23rd minute and Jude Bellingham from the penalty spot in the 56th. The clean sheet at the other end is the bigger headline.
Was Luka Modrić substituted? Yes. Zlatko Dalić pulled the Croatia captain at the 65th minute, to a standing ovation from Estadio Akron. Mateo Kovačić assisted the winner shortly afterwards.
How many groups have all four teams played now? All twelve. Matchday 7 closed the first round of group fixtures. From Thursday onwards the bracket is in its repeat-fixture phase. Updated tables on the Scorelisto soccer hub.