DR Congo vs England - Kinshasa now has a knockout edge after DR Congo came from a goal down to beat Uzbekistan 3-1 and reach the last 32 of the World Cup. The result sets up a meeting with England, and Gabriel Zakuani believes the match can be won.
The former DRC defender turned down an offer to co-commentate on the game because, as he put it, “There’s too much emotion in it. I won’t be able to do it,” after following the squad through training camps in Belgium and Spain and attending DR Congo’s opening 1-1 draw with Portugal in Houston.
Mayele turns the Uzbekistan match
Fiston Mayele scored against Uzbekistan, and DR Congo used the comeback to turn a difficult start into a place in the last 32. That sequence matters because it showed this squad can recover in a match that was heading the wrong way before the turnaround took hold.
DR Congo were also coming off their first World Cup match since 1974, when they drew 1-1 with Portugal. The country, then competing as Zaire, had been the first sub-Saharan African nation to qualify for the World Cup finals in 1974, so this run has carried a rare historical edge as well as a present one.
Zakuani sees England gaps
Zakuani’s view of England is blunt. “There are holes in England. I think it’s been glaring,” he said, adding, “When you sit back against England, they struggle to open you up.” His plan is simple: “That’s what we’ll exploit.”
He also narrowed the danger down to one player. “If you stop Jude Bellingham, I think you stop a lot of England,” he said, before describing DR Congo as “very athletic” and “very good defensively.” He added, “And I think we’ve got a bit more than Ghana going forward.”
DR Congo’s squad mix
The selection itself gives DR Congo a different profile. Yoane Wissa, Noah Sadiki and Aaron Wan-Bissaka were all expected to start, while Axel Tuanzebe — who attended the same school as Marcus Rashford, Ashton on Mersey in Greater Manchester — is part of a group that includes only six players born in the DRC.
That blend of diaspora experience has been central to the setup around Sébastien Desabre. Zakuani said he helped assemble the squad from the Congolese diaspora around Europe, and Noah Sadiki has also drawn attention after his first season in the Premier League, with Chelsea and United tracking him. Those links give the team familiarity with the level England will bring.
For DR Congo, the task is now straightforward: hold England long enough to create chances, then take them. Zakuani put it this way: “So I would say if we can hold them for as long as possible, we will get chances. And we just have to be clinical when we do get those chances.”
He did not hide where he stands on the outcome. “That’s the way I see us beating England,” he said, and DR Congo enter the last 32 with a comeback win, a scorer in form, and a former captain who believes the gap is smaller than England expect.
