Bruno Fernandes fired Portugal to the 2022 World Cup with a brace in a 2-0 victory over Italy’s conquerors North Macedonia on Tuesday, while Robert Lewandowski guided Poland past Sweden.
The North Macedonia players have “90 minutes to fulfil” the “dream of a whole country”, says key midfielder Elif Elmas ahead of Tuesday’s 2022 World Cup playoff against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal.
Portugal have been well and truly warned not to take the threat of North Macedonia lightly as they face Italy's conquerors in a decisive World Cup qualifying play-off on Tuesday.
Catch up with the highlights and reactions as Italy suffered a shocking 1-0 loss at home to Nort Macedonia ending their hopes of qualifying for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, while Portugal progressed with a 3-1 win over Turkey.
Portugal are through to a decisive World Cup qualifying play-off final next week after beating Turkey 3-1 in Porto on Thursday, but only after Burak Yilmaz missed a crucial late penalty for the visitors.
The World Cup hopes of the last two European champions are on a knife edge with Portugal and Italy on a collision course in decisive qualifying play-offs over the next week.
Veteran defender Pepe will miss Portugal’s World Cup playoff semi-final against Turkey after testing positive for Covid-19, the Portuguese football federation announced on Monday.
Portugal's Ruben Dias is likely to miss this month's World Cup qualifier against Turkey with a hamstring injury that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said will sideline the defender for up to six weeks.
European champions Italy and Portugal could meet for a place at the 2022 World Cup after being drawn in the same play-off path on Friday.
Aleksandar Mitrovic’s last-minute header snatched Serbia automatic qualification for Qatar 2022 as they won in Portugal to consign the hosts to the play-offs.