England unbeaten in 58 first-time meetings as DR Congo await World Cup debut against them

As England fans scramble for omens this should help ease the nerves. A World Cup round-of-32 fixture against DR Congo brings what has long proved a fruitful venture for them: a first-time meeting with opponents. They have lost none of their past 58 such matches. Nice to meet you, but the niceties end there. 

Back in May 1959 an England team managed by Walter Winterbottom and featuring Billy Wright and Bobby Charlton lost their first ever meeting with Peru, going down 4-1 in Lima. Just seven days later their first match against Mexico also ended in defeat, by 2-1 in Mexico City. Yet 67 years later England have not lost again to new opponents. That’s 58 matches, 44 wins, 14 draws and no defeats.

In many first-time meetings, naturally, defeat would have been inconceivable, such as against San Marino and Andorra. But the present run of eight consecutive victories in these fixtures include games against more formidable sides in Ivory Coast and Senegal, the latter in the first knock-out round of the last World Cup.

DR Congo, who are England’s 89th opponents in all – two of whom have been Rest of Europe and Rest of the World – lost to Scotland under their former name of Zaire at the 1974 World Cup but have not faced England. They are aiming to be the first African side to win a first meeting with England, though they would doubtless happily accept a draw if it led to progress via a penalty shoot-out.

The first international football match of all featured a draw between Scotland and England, who won their next nine first-time meetings. Those included their first game against non-British Isles opposition, a 6-1 win over Austria in Vienna in 1908, which the English followed two days later with an 11-1 thrashing of the same opponents in the same city.

But over the next 21 first-time meetings, from 1929 to 1959, they suffered what remain their only six defeats in such fixtures. Spain recovered from 2-0 and 3-2 down to beat them 4-3 in Madrid in 1929, and ten years later England went down 2-1 in Belgrade to Yugoslavia (Serbia are considered their successors). Then came the infamous 1-0 loss to the United States in Belo Horizonte at the 1950 World Cup and a 2-1 defeat to Uruguay in Montevideo in 1953, before those two losses to Peru and Mexico a week apart in 1959.

England’s past three first-time meetings have all brought 3-0 wins: the World Cup match against Senegal, a pre-Euro 2024 friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina at St James’ Park and a World Cup qualifier last year against Latvia at Wembley. 

In theory DR Congo are England’s toughest possible new opponents: at No41, they are the highest-placed team in Fifa’s latest rankings never to have met this country. Next are Venezuela, in 47th, Mali, in 53rd, and Qatar, in 59th. And the nearest footballing nation never to have faced England, based on distances between capital cities? The Faroe Islands. If and when that meeting eventually happens, England will hope their long unbeaten run is still intact. 

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