Portugal opened their World Cup Group K schedule with a 1-1 draw against DR Congo at Houston Stadium, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s display again drew scrutiny as Portugal’s captain failed to register a shot on target across three attempts during the match.

Yoane Wissa cancelled out Joao Neves’ sixth-minute goal to earn DR Congo a point, extending Ronaldo’s run without a goal at major tournaments for Portugal to 10 matches in World Cup and EURO competition, the longest such spell of the forward’s international career.

Diogo Dalot explained that the Portugal squad had already spoken in depth about the situation before travelling, and Dalot insisted that criticism of Cristiano Ronaldo at the World Cup did not catch the group off guard after so many years of attention on the Portugal captain.

Dalot backed the 41-year-old after the draw with DR Congo, stressing that the Portugal dressing room had prepared for intensified debate around Ronaldo’s role and form, and that the players wanted to keep focus on collective goals during the World Cup campaign.

Dalot said: “It’s very simple. In the locker room, at our stadium, we had the opportunity before arriving at the World Cup to have a detailed conversation about this.It was almost as if we’d anticipated that this would happen. Of course, when you have a squad like this, especially with a player like Cristiano, we have to be prepared, a little more than usual. The fact that we had that pre-World Cup conversation to prepare ourselves for these moments meant that when it actually happened, we were able to send the message that the group is unshakeablewe knew this was going to happen. We knew we’d face difficulties and criticism.Sometimes unfair, sometimes untrue, and often blown out of proportion.”

Ronaldo’s wait for another major tournament goal for Portugal now dates back to the strike against Ghana on MD1 of the 2022 World Cup, and since then critics have questioned whether the forward should continue to start at this level for the national team.

Across those 10 World Cup and EURO appearances without scoring, Ronaldo has attempted 33 shots and produced 11 attempts on target, with an expected goals figure of 4.5, indicating that chances have arrived even if the finishing touch has been missing.

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When penalties are removed, the sequence stretches to 13 major tournament games without a goal for Ronaldo, during which the forward has fired 42 non-penalty shots, again totalling 4.5 non-penalty expected goals, underlining a long spell of frustration in front of goal for Portugal.