For an hour inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, this looked like a night of frustration for Congo DR. They had chased and probed and found nothing, an early Uzbekistan strike hanging over them like a warning. Then, in the space of thirty transformative minutes, the whole complexion of the contest turned inside out.

By the time the fourth official raised the board, Congo DR had scored three, Yoane Wissa had a brace, and the scoreline read 3-1 in a match that had spent the best part of two-thirds of its length going the other way. It was a comeback built on patience and finished with real venom, the kind of result that reshapes a group and a mood in one swing.

Uzbekistan will leave Atlanta wondering how a lead so hard-won evaporated so completely. They had the perfect start, the perfect platform, and only a single goal to show for it before Congo DR found their teeth. Football rarely rewards the side that stops attacking, and here the punishment was severe.

A bright Uzbek start

Uzbekistan could hardly have scripted the opening better. Inside ten minutes they were ahead, Akmal Mozgovoy slipping the ball to Eldor Shomurodov on the left side of the box. The finish was clinical, a left-footed strike arrowed into the top right corner, the sort of decisive execution that quietens a stadium and settles nerves in an instant.

The goal gave Uzbekistan exactly what they wanted: a lead to protect and a rhythm to impose. For long stretches they were compact and disciplined, content to let Congo DR come forward and hoping to spring on the break. Shomurodov's early strike looked, for the longest time, like it might be enough.

But a one-goal lead is a fragile thing when the opposition keep coming. Uzbekistan retreated deeper as the second half wore on, ceding ground and inviting the pressure that would eventually undo them. The margin that had felt comfortable at half-time began, minute by minute, to look perilously thin.

The tide turns

The equaliser arrived from the penalty spot on 68 minutes, and it fell to the ideal man. Yoane Wissa stepped up and sent his right-footed effort into the bottom right corner, the kind of composed finish that carries the weight of a match on it. Suddenly the belief that had been draining out of Congo DR came flooding back.

Ten minutes later they had the lead, and this time the goal came from the sharpest of instincts. Fiston Mayele pounced from very close range, stabbing a right-footed finish into the top left corner to complete the turnaround. In the blink of an eye the side that had chased the game all night were in front of it.

From there the momentum was entirely one-directional. Uzbekistan, forced to chase, left space they could not afford, and Congo DR smelled the chance to make it count. The equaliser and the go-ahead goal in the space of ten minutes had flipped the narrative; now they wanted to bury it.

Wissa seals it

The final flourish came deep into stoppage time, and it belonged again to Wissa. Meschack Elia teed him up on the edge of the area, and the striker lashed a right-footed shot from outside the box into the bottom right corner. It was a goal of quality to cap a night of character, and it left no doubt about the destination of the points.

Two goals for Wissa, one for Mayele, an assist for Elia: the names on the scoresheet told the story of a Congo DR attack that grew more dangerous the longer it went. What had begun as laboured pressure ended as a full-blooded demolition, the three-goal haul all coming after the 67th minute. Rarely does a match compress so much drama into its closing third.

For Uzbekistan, the manner of the collapse will sting as much as the result. To lead for so long and finish beaten by two clear goals is a cruel arithmetic, a reminder that in tournament football a lead means nothing without the nerve to hold it. Their early promise counted for little once the tide had turned.

What it means

This was the sort of victory that can define a group campaign. Congo DR did not simply survive a difficult evening; they seized it, turning a deficit into a commanding win and announcing themselves as a side with both resilience and firepower. A 3-1 scoreline flatters no one who watched the opening hour, but the second-half surge earned every inch of it.

The shape of Group K now bends towards Congo DR, who have shown they can dig out results even when the run of play deserts them. Confidence is a currency at a World Cup, and few things generate it quite like a comeback finished with a stoppage-time goal from your best forward. They march on with the wind at their backs.

Uzbekistan, by contrast, must regroup quickly and learn the lesson written plainly across the final half-hour. The talent is evident, Shomurodov's early strike proof enough of that, but games at this level are decided by who lasts the full ninety with their concentration intact. On this evidence, they let a winning position slip through their fingers.

The Mercedes-Benz Stadium emptied to the sound of a comeback complete, the kind of night that lingers long after the whistle. Congo DR arrived under pressure and left with a statement; Uzbekistan arrived with a plan and left with regrets. In a group still taking shape, this was the result that spoke loudest.