{"id":214035,"date":"2026-06-16T20:23:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T20:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/portugal-2026-world-cup-schedule-who-will-ronaldo-face-in-group-stage-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T20:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T20:23:22","slug":"portugal-2026-world-cup-schedule-who-will-ronaldo-face-in-group-stage-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/portugal-2026-world-cup-schedule-who-will-ronaldo-face-in-group-stage-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Portugal 2026 World Cup schedule: Who will Ronaldo face in group stage? &#8211; USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cristiano Ronaldo is playing in his sixth <a href=\/sports\/soccer\/world-cup\/ target=_blank rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=:b|e|k|\u2691u class=gnt_ar_b_a>World Cup<\/a> with the Portugal national team.<br \/>His rival, <a href=\/sports\/soccer\/lionel-messi\/ target=_blank rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=:b|e|k|\u2691u class=gnt_ar_b_a>Lionel Messi<\/a>, <a href=\/story\/sports\/soccer\/worldcup\/2022\/12\/18\/world-cup-argentina-lionel-messi-champions-defeating-france\/10920961002\/ target=_blank rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=:b|e|k|\u2691u class=gnt_ar_b_a>won his first World Cup in 2022<\/a>, giving him a leg up in the Greatest Of All Time conversation. Portugal was knocked out in the quarterfinals of that tournament.<br \/>The 2026 World Cup will most likely be Ronaldo&#8217;s last chance to capture the coveted trophy. <a href=\/story\/sports\/soccer\/worldcup\/2026\/05\/19\/portugal-national-team-fifa-world-cup-roster-official-squad\/90065446007\/ target=_blank rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=:b|e|k|\u2691u class=gnt_ar_b_a>The 41-year-old will be joined by<\/a> his Al-Nassr teammate Joa\u0303o Fe\u0301lix and the Manchester City duo of Ru\u0301ben Dias and Bernardo Silva. They will start their journey in Group K as they seek to be crowned the best team on the planet.<br \/>En route to this World Cup, Portugal dominated in UEFA qualifying. A 9-1 victory over Armenia that punched their ticket to the tournament, which has a record 48 teams this year.<br \/>Portugal has appeared in seven straight World Cups. Their best finish was third in their first appearance in the competition back in 1966.<br \/>Here&#8217;s a look at the complete schedule for Portugal during the 2026 World Cup, including how to watch each match:<br \/>Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal will play three scheduled games as part of Group K play to begin the 2026 World Cup. Two teams from each group, as well as the next eight-best overall teams based on record and tiebreakers, advance to the single-elimination knockout rounds.<br \/><em>Our editors independently choose our recommendations. Some content is produced with paid support from a third party, however our editorial decisions remain independent. If you buy through our links, the USA TODAY Network may earn a commission. Prices and availability may change.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMi0wFBVV95cUxQZlNJUlVsYmFpWllBeEdGS0tENW01ZFRBZmpuMUtyT1ZpdDFuOGp5eVprOW1lWmNaWmlkQjVMQlI5S29reEN0XzBydnBJd0UwYkh5QnRQRWZmTHM5bVplVzcxM0pvNG9RVFRzVFlVRDcxWC1LWmJwVmZiZnQ0Ym42NDRTTlhWSVJNcTE2SVdVSGJmaEI1OVQyWG9XZTlqLWpEU3VDcHMtU3FNa0FtYU5qRXBHM0pxUk0zSmZ5N2gxZ2hJLWQ2RXFSTUQwY0xFVzdCd1Iw?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cristiano Ronaldo is playing in his sixth World Cup with the Portugal national team.His rival, Lionel Messi, won his first World Cup in 2022, giving him a leg up in the Greatest Of All Time conversation. Portugal was knocked out in the quarterfinals of that tournament.The 2026 World Cup will most likely be Ronaldo&#8217;s last [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}