Two Point One Eight Versus Zero Point Two. Congo Made It Look Closer
Two point one eight expected goals. That is what DR Congo produced against Uzbekistan, against an Uzbek total of just 0.20, and yet the scoreboard for long stretches suggested a tight, nervy contest rather than the mismatch the underlying numbers describe. DR Congo beat Uzbekistan 3-1 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on June 28, 2026, in their final Group K match at the 2026 World Cup, a result that sends Sebastien Desabre’s side into the round of 32 for the first time in the nation’s history.
DR Congo won 3-1. Eldor Shomurodov put Uzbekistan ahead in the 10th minute with a lobbed finish after a defensive mix-up. Yoane Wissa equalized from the penalty spot in the 68th minute after Abdukodir Khusanov brought him down in the box. Fiston Mayele put Congo ahead in the 78th, poking home after Meschack Elia’s shot deflected into his path, and Wissa added a third in stoppage time with a curling strike from 20 yards.
Here is the part the scoreline hides. For 65 minutes this looked like a game Uzbekistan might actually hold. They led 1-0 at half time despite generating almost nothing, just 0.05 expected goals from their own shots before the break, while Congo had created 0.21 across the same period without converting. The gap between performance and result only closed once the penalty arrived, and once it did, the rest of the match turned into a procession.
Wissa finished with 1.33 individual expected goals from six shots, more than double anyone else on the pitch, and his penalty alone carried 0.79 of that total. That is not subtle. A team with one truly dangerous forward can still look ordinary until the law of averages catches up, and on this night it caught up three times.
Possession barely tells the real story here. Congo held the ball 58 percent of the time and completed 400 of 485 passes for 82 percent accuracy, modestly ahead of Uzbekistan’s 76 percent. The gulf was not in who kept the ball. It was in what each side did with the moments that mattered. Congo managed 30 touches in the Uzbek box compared to Uzbekistan’s seven, a ratio that explains the eventual scoreline far better than any possession count does.
Shots tell a similarly lopsided tale. Congo fired 19 attempts to Uzbekistan’s three, with four on target against just one. Still, 19 shots producing three goals from open-play and penalty situations combined is not a wildly efficient night either.
Fouls flip the entire picture. Uzbekistan committed 16 fouls to Congo’s six, with two yellow cards each, the kind of number that points to a side stretched and chasing rather than one controlling territory. Sherzod Nasrullaev’s first-half booking and Khusanov’s clumsy penalty foul both fit a pattern of a back line under more pressure than the early scoreline let on.
Uzbekistan exit the tournament with zero points and a minus nine goal difference across three games, conceding three goals in the final 15 minutes alone, a collapse matched by only one other side this World Cup. Congo finish third in Group K and face England next in the round of 32 on July 3.
What happens when a team that needed 68 minutes and a penalty to find its first real foothold runs into a side that does not give those openings away so easily is the question nobody in Atlanta had to answer on Saturday night.