ATLANTA, GA — The Democratic Republic of Congo returned back to Atlanta, Georgia for the round of 32 in hopes to replicate what happened in their last visit, but England’s star Harry Kane wasn’t allowing it. England eliminates DR Congo from the 2026 FIFA World Cup with 2-1 win on Wednesday, July 1 at Atlanta Stadium.
The energy from their final match in group play was still alive and well for the DR Congo fan base and their team fed off that energy early in this match. Brian Cipenga was on the attack early and he was able to slam a low ping to the corner for the first score of the match at the seventh minute. DR Congo would take the early 1-0 lead and hold onto for majority of the match.
England’s back line and their goalkeeper Jordan Pickford would remain strong to hold off Congo for remainder of the first half and the match. Things got chippy at the 19’ minute and England’s Jude Bellingham received a yellow card. DR Congo wasn’t able to convert the free kick and the England crowd had a huge sigh of relief after possibly seeing their team go down two goals.
A big reason why DR Congo was in control of this match for the majority of the match was their goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi. He finished the match with five total saves and had three of those saves in the first half!
England was determine to not be upset nor denied in the second half and Kane played a big part in that. The sea of red and white in Atlanta Stadium would go crazy at the 75’ minute when Kane tied the match with a head shot for the score on a corner play. Anthony Gordon was credited with the assist, and it was one of two he had in the match.
Kane would give England fans something even louder to cheer and chant about after delivering another goal to give them their first lead of the match. The superstar striker would split the defenders and slither through a small opening to get free right outside the box so Gordon could find him for another goal. That had the fans going wild and so was Kane as he took off his shirt in celebration. England would still need to hold on to preserve their 2-1 lead.
DR Congo would have one last chance to possibly tie the game and send it into extra time. They had a free kick late in the game from the corner that was unsuccessful and essentially ended the match. DR Congo played a hard fought match and represented their country well throughout the tournament but was not able to advance out of the round of 32.
“It feels amazing, what a crazy game,” Kane told reporters after the game. “A tough team, an organised team, we upped the level, their goalkeeper made some unbelievable saves.”
He continued, “We spoke about teams having hero moments, we have hero moments, for me, it was today. You have to stay patient in these games, knockout football, the pressure is higher. We spoke about being ourselves, from an attacking point of view, our best game of the tournament.”
England had 60% of the possessions in this game and was credited with creating seven big chances in this game to possibly score compared to zero created by DR Congo.
“Ultimately we’re kicking ourselves more so because we felt we should’ve definitely held out the game. Probably should’ve finished it in the first half as well but it was unfortunate it was not meant to be for us today but we’ll look on this and think how we can build for future tournaments,” said DR Congo’s back line defender Axel Tuanzebe.
He added, “I think we’ll definitely learn from this and continue attacking the game, especially early on because having to defend wave of attack after attack against this calibre of players they will prevail and they did so today.”
England was back in action on Sunday, July 5 in the round of 16. They were able to knock off Mexico with a 3-2 win in Mexico City. Mexico became the second of three host countries to fall in the round of 16. England will now turn their attention to Norway in the one of the most anticipated quarterfinals matches in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The two are set to meet on Saturday, July 11 in Miami at 5:00 p.m.