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2026 FIFA World Cup
19APR

Kane double ends DR Congo's run

2 min read
11:22UTC

Harry Kane scored twice as England beat DR Congo 2-1, ending a debut knockout run that dated back to 1974.

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Key takeaway

Harry Kane's double beat DR Congo 2-1, ending the tournament's leading debutant run at the first knockout.

Harry Kane scored twice as England beat DR Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2-1 in the World Cup round of 32 on 1 July 1. Kane headed in on 75 minutes and struck again late to close out DR Congo's first knockout run in more than half a century 2.

Kane, England's captain and record scorer, had already passed Gary Lineker's national goal tally during the group stage . DR Congo, back in a World Cup knockout round for the first time since 1974 , had been the debut story of the group phase. England, semi-finalists and finalists across recent tournaments, closed the game out with two second-half goals.

The 48-team format was sold on giant-killing, and the round of 32 mostly delivered the reverse. Long-shots that survived the groups through the best-third-place route could not, in most cases, win a single knockout against an established side. Group access and knockout success test different things: a 48-team group phase lets a debutant bank one strong result and go through on aggregate, while a single-leg knockout strips out that averaging and exposes a gap in squad depth at once.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

England beat DR Congo 2-1, with captain Harry Kane scoring both goals. DR Congo were playing in the World Cup's knockout rounds for the first time since 1974, when the country competed under its former name, Zaire. A gap of 52 years between a nation's first and second appearance in the World Cup knockout stage is extremely rare. It happened partly because the tournament expanded from 32 to 48 teams for 2026, giving more nations a realistic path to qualify and then advance past the group stage. DR Congo's exit ends that historic run, but reaching the knockout stage at all was already the country's best World Cup result since Zaire's single 1974 campaign.

What could happen next?
  • Precedent

    DR Congo's knockout return, decades after their only prior appearance, will be cited by FIFA as evidence the 48-team format is achieving its access goals for emerging football nations.

Sources:BBC Sport·BBC Sport
Mentions:England →DR Congo →Harry Kane →FIFA →Gary Lineker →World Cup →
First Reported In

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BBC Sport· 2 Jul 2026
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Causes and effects
Caused by
DR Congo reach last 32 after 52 years
DR Congo's first knockout qualification since 1974 set up their round-of-32 exit to England.
Occurred 27 Jun 2026
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This Event
Kane double ends DR Congo's run
England ended the expansion's flagship debut story, beating DR Congo 2-1 in the first knockout round.
Different Perspectives
French Football Federation
French Football Federation
The FFF called an 11:00 CEST press conference for 28 July, at its Paris headquarters, following an extraordinary executive committee meeting, at which Zinedine Zidane is expected to be presented as head coach succeeding Didier Deschamps. As of this writing no communique confirms the appointment, contract length or start date.
Morocco
Morocco
Morocco is pushing for the 2030 final at its Grand Stade Hassan II in Casablanca, a planned 115,000-seat venue that would be the world's largest football stadium on completion. The venue is contested by a Spanish petition for the Santiago Bernabeu, and FIFA has fixed neither the venue nor the tournament's proposed 64-team format.
FIFA
FIFA
FIFA's first tournament report, published 27 July, itemises nearly 300,000 accredited personnel, 73,700 security staff and 300,000 square metres of custom-grown turf, with no revenue or cost figure attached. As a Swiss association answering to its own Congress rather than a treasury, FIFA has followed the same operational-before-financial sequence it used after Qatar 2022.
Javier Tebas / La Liga
Javier Tebas / La Liga
La Liga president Javier Tebas said on 21 July that FIFA's system is rotten from the root and that Gianni Infantino's time as president has, in his words, concluded. Tebas has no vote in FIFA's process, so days after the IOC declined jurisdiction over a separate ethics complaint, he used the only instrument he has.
Mexico City government
Mexico City government
Head of government Clara Brugada presented a closing report on 22 July crediting the tournament with 44 billion pesos of economic activity, 2,000-plus accelerated public works and 100,000 formal jobs in June alone. The city has not published the method behind that figure, and three other Mexican bodies count the same five weeks differently.
Town of Foxborough
Town of Foxborough
Foxborough answered Kraft Group's June lawsuit on 7 July with a 61-page counterclaim, calling the stadium's owners 'a collection of multibillion-dollar corporations' trying to shift its $7.8 million security bill onto taxpayers. The town says its licensing power and its billing power run through the same board, and it wants the court to award its own costs too.