2 years ago
23
ARTICLE AD BOX
Bruno Fernandes' double takes him up to eight international goalsBruno Fernandes sent Portugal to the World Cup with a double in their play-off final win over North Macedonia.
Fernandes won the ball in midfield, played a one-two with Manchester United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo and fired home from the edge of the box to open the scoring in Porto.
He then volleyed in Diogo Jota's cross for the second having helped start the move himself outside his own box.
The Macedonians, who stunned Italy in the semis, offered little throughout.
They never looked like reaching a first World Cup and failed to test Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa once.
Portugal qualify for their sixth World Cup in a row with Ronaldo, 37, going to the tournament for a fifth and potentially final time.
Portugal get there eventually
Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe have played 334 games together for Real Madrid and PortugalPortugal sealed their World Cup spot four and a half months after they had hoped to. They were seconds away from winning their group before Aleksandar Mitrovic's 90th-minute goal sent Serbia through instead.
They rode their luck a bit in the semi-final against Turkey, who missed a penalty at 2-1, before Portugal netted late to make it 3-1.
But there was no real drama this time in Porto as they outclassed North Macedonia, ranked 67th in the world, who had given everything they had to knock out Italy last week.
For several of this Portugal squad, Qatar will be their final World Cup and possibly major tournament.
Striker and captain Ronaldo had a good chance to open the scoring but fired wide from Otavio's through ball, before setting up Fernandes' opener.
Defender Pepe, 39, denied Eljif Elmas a rare Macedonian chance with an excellent block in the second half.
Joao Moutinho, at 35, is approaching the end of his international career too. The trio have more than 450 combined caps.
They should have won this game by more with Jota heading over and hitting the side-netting.
But now on to Qatar where they will be considered among the potential winners of the only major tournament that has evaded Ronaldo in his career.
They are likely to be among the top seeds in Friday's draw in Doha.
Line-ups
Portugal
Formation 4-3-3
- 22Meireles Costa
- 20CanceloBooked at 68mins
- 3Pepe
- 13Danilo
- 2Tavares Mendes
- 11Bruno FernandesSubstituted forNunesat 88'minutes
- 8João MoutinhoSubstituted forVitinhaat 90+1'minutes
- 10Bernardo SilvaSubstituted forSequeiraat 88'minutes
- 16OtávioSubstituted forWilliam Carvalhoat 77'minutes
- 19JotaSubstituted forda Conceição Leãoat 77'minutes
- 7Cristiano Ronaldo
Substitutes
- 1Rui Patrício
- 4Vitinha
- 5Guerreiro
- 6José Fonte
- 9André Silva
- 12Malheiro de Sá
- 14William Carvalho
- 15da Conceição Leão
- 17Gonçalo Guedes
- 18Nunes
- 21Cédric Soares
- 23Sequeira
North Macedonia
Formation 4-2-3-1
- 1Dimitrievski
- 13Ristovski
- 14Velkovski
- 6MusliuBooked at 68mins
- 8AlioskiBooked at 74mins
- 5Ademi
- 10Bardhi
- 21KostadinovSubstituted forAskovskiat 75'minutes
- 7ElmasSubstituted forNikolovat 87'minutes
- 9TrajkovskiSubstituted forChurlinovat 59'minutes
- 19RistovskiSubstituted forMiovskiat 45'minutes
Substitutes
- 2Todoroski
- 3Askovski
- 4Ristevski
- 11Churlinov
- 12Naumovski
- 15Serafimov
- 16Nikolov
- 17Babunski
- 18Babunski
- 20Spirovski
- 22Shishkovski
- 23Miovski
Referee:Anthony Taylor
Attendance:48,010
Live Text
Match ends, Portugal 2, North Macedonia 0.
Second Half ends, Portugal 2, North Macedonia 0.
Foul by Matheus Nunes (Portugal).
Boban Nikolov (North Macedonia) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Substitution, Portugal. Vitinha replaces João Moutinho.
Corner, North Macedonia. Conceded by Nuno Mendes.
Substitution, Portugal. Matheus Nunes replaces Bruno Fernandes.
Substitution, Portugal. João Félix replaces Bernardo Silva.
Substitution, North Macedonia. Boban Nikolov replaces Eljif Elmas.
Corner, Portugal. Conceded by Darko Velkovski.
Foul by Bernardo Silva (Portugal).
Eljif Elmas (North Macedonia) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner, Portugal. Conceded by Darko Velkovski.
Attempt blocked. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) right footed shot from very close range is blocked. Assisted by Bruno Fernandes.
Substitution, Portugal. Rafael Leão replaces Diogo Jota.
Substitution, Portugal. William Carvalho replaces Otávio.
Substitution, North Macedonia. Stefan Askovski replaces Tihomir Kostadinov.
Ezgjan Alioski (North Macedonia) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Otávio (Portugal) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Ezgjan Alioski (North Macedonia).
English (US)