He blew out his cheeks when first approaching the dressing room and it was the same gesture as he reached the top of the tunnel and stepped out into the World Cup, aching for a final contribution to football history.'He is anxious as he is representing Portugal in the national team,' Bruno Fernandes had said of Cristiano Ronaldo, the night before. And that was before Lionel Messi scored his hat-trick. Messi featured in high-spec adverts for the tournament's official beer on the stadium concourse screens. Ronaldo featured in adverts for plastic images of himself.But while the 38-year-old Argentinian was the talk of America, coast to coast, yesterday, the 41-year-old Portuguese's legitimacy is in question after a performance for the ages by Congo, whose very presence here has defied fate.There was no doubting the expectation. For all the debate about his presence which has raged from Lisbon to Porto, a hell of a lot of fans were wearing the name 'Ronaldo' on their No 7 replica shirts and the noise ratcheted up each time he touched the ball in the early stages.A generous interpretation of what unfolded would highlight the way he worried defenders in the first half, moving into offside positions, drawing anxious Congolese deeper with him and creating space in front of goal.But his biggest contributions were symbolic – setting off Portugal's tournament with the toe of his right boot and remonstrating with a referee who booked Bernardo Silva early. When substitute Francisco Conceicao slipped a pass to him in the right side of the penalty box as the second half wore on, he could only screw it wide. Conceicao located him again. Ronaldo missed again. Cristiano Ronaldo endured a frustrating outing as Portugal were held by DR Congo