Six minutes. That is all it takes for Portugal to look like world-beaters — and then spend the rest of the evening squandering the illusion. João Neves rises above Axel Tuanzebe and nods Pedro Neto's cross past the goalkeeper, and the stadium erupts. The crowd had already cheered Cristiano Ronaldo's first touch — a sideways pass to João Cancelo — almost as loudly.

For a brief moment, everything feels inevitable. Then the DRC decide they have not come here merely to observe. Yoane Wissa is exceptional from the first whistle, running channels that Portugal's defensive line cannot quite close. The equaliser, when it arrives, is elegant: a well-taken header from Wissa in the dying seconds before half-time that silences a ground packed with No.

7 shirts. Cédric Bakambu, the DRC's own veteran striker, twice comes close to completing a stunning upset, showing a relentless energy that makes Ronaldo's peripheral wandering look even more conspicuous by contrast. Roberto Martínez tries to shift the momentum at the 83rd minute, sending on Gonçalo Ramos — but he withdraws Vitinha rather than Ronaldo, a decision that raises eyebrows across the stadium and well beyond it. Ronaldo, who has offered little more than two half-chances all evening, slogges on to the final whistle.

Gianni Infantino, watching from the stands, had personally intervened to clear the suspension that allowed Ronaldo to play. Whether that intervention was worth the effort is now a very open question. For the DRC, the result is nothing short of historic — their first-ever World Cup point, claimed after their squad spent three weeks in Belgium under quarantine because of an Ebola outbreak at home. "We gave everything and we are delighted," says coach Sébastien Desabre, and no one in the arena is in any position to argue.