Portugal will take part in the Winter World Cup in Qatar. The Iberians beat harmless northern Macedonians in the final of the play-offs thanks to an outstanding Manchester United player.
Portugal, who started with an almost retreaded back four after their 3-1 loss to Turkey (Pepe, Nuno Mendes and Joao Cancelo started for Dortmund’s Guerreiro, José Fonte and Diogo Dalot), immediately took control of the game. This was the case because Italy’s scare Northern Macedonia left the field to the home side. The Iberians, however, did not know what to do with it against the visitors, who were strong in two fights. Only Cristiano Ronaldo had a better chance in the early stages (14th).
CR7 misses narrowly, but sets up for 1:0
Compact and high pressing Northern Macedonians, who started with Elmas and Kostadinov for Churlinov and Nikolov after the surprising 1:0 over Italy, did not allow many chances. However, the guests themselves hardly had any penalty area scenes. Alioski missed clearly with his volley (20th).
In the middle of the first half, Portugal slowly began to put their opponents in their place. Bruno Fernandes appeared again and again and whirled through the midfield. Consequently, a corner from the Man United player led to the next chance: Diogo Jota headed just over (24).
A little later, the midfielder scored himself: Because Stefan Ristovski made a sloppy pass and Bruno Fernandes and assistant Cristiano Ronaldo were wide awake, the former scored unstoppably to make it 1:0 (32). From then on, the Iberians became stronger and stronger, Diogo Jota missed the 2:0 before the break (40.).
Conter and dream cross lead to decision
After that, the game became more and more disjointed. Portugal did no more than they had to – and North Macedonia managed extremely little. What the Iberians finally managed after just over an hour was all the more beautiful: on a counter-attack, Diogo Jota crossed precisely to Bruno Fernandes, who volleyed home a spectacular winner (65th minute).
In the closing stages of a second half that was largely a washout, Cristiano Ronaldo had two more chances, but both missed narrowly (79th, 81st). Northern Macedonia, meanwhile, remained extremely harmless and were unable to spring a surprise as they did against Italy.
