Sebastian Desabre led DR Congo into the Round of 32 at the 2026 World Cup for the first time in the country’s history. The 3-1 win over Uzbekistan sealed a place in the knockout rounds and gave DR Congo its first World Cup win and first points.
Group K payoff
DR Congo’s route out of Group K came through a 1-1 draw with Portugal, a 1-0 loss to Colombia, and then the result that changed everything against Uzbekistan. That final group match completed a three-game return to the FIFA World Cup with numbers the team had never posted before: a win, points, and a knockout-stage berth.
For Desabre, the job was not just to get results, but to turn one point into momentum fast enough to keep the group alive. Once DR Congo took the Uzbekistan result, the tournament moved from a return appearance to a first-ever advance past the group stage.
Zaire’s 1974 burden
The contrast reaches back to 1974, when DR Congo first appeared at the World Cup as Zaire. That team lost all three group-stage matches without scoring, including a 9-0 defeat to Yugoslavia, and finished bottom of the group after losses to Scotland, Brazil and Yugoslavia.
Ilunga Mwepu is part of that history. In one of the most remembered moments from that tournament, he ran out of the defensive wall and kicked the ball away during Brazil’s free-kick attempt. Sport later linked that era to deeper problems around the team, including pressure from the country’s leadership after players faced problems with promised bonuses and conditions.
DR Congo’s new line
The 2026 run breaks that pattern in the cleanest possible way. DR Congo returned after a 52-year absence, played three group matches, and left with its best World Cup finish and a place in the Round of 32. The result also redraws the country’s World Cup record: one historical low point in 1974, and now a first knockout-stage appearance almost half a century later.
How Desabre shaped that shift is the lasting question. The scoreline against Uzbekistan gives the answer on the page, but the larger record now belongs to a DR Congo side that turned a long gap into a place among the last 32.
