Serbia stunned Portugal to qualify for the next year’s World Cup, with Ronaldo and co forced to go through playoffs.
Serbia defeated Portugal with a 2-1 result in their World Cup qualifier on Sunday. The amazing Eagles finished the qualification tournament unbeaten as they sent Portugal to the playoffs.
A late goal sends Serbia to World Cup!
Portugal made a perfect start to the match as they went ahead only two minutes into the game. Renato Sanches converted Bernardo Silva’s assist to make it 1-0 for the Navegadores.
However, Serbia immediately started their efforts to score the equalizer and managed to make it 1-1 in the 33rd minute. Following a blunder by Rui Patricio, Dusan Tadic scored Serbia’s first goal to revive their hopes of winning the game.
Cristiano Ronaldo spent another quiet night in Portugal’s final third as Serbia continued to dominate in the second half. The Eagles finally got their match-winner in the last minute of the game to complete their impressive comeback. Dusan Tadic sent an inch-perfect cross to the far post, which was converted by Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Having finished as Group A leaders, Serbia will now prepare themselves for the next year’s competition in Qatar.
On the other hand, Portugal will continue the qualifiers by participating in the playoffs. Their opponents and the days of their matches are not known yet.
Player Ratings
Portugal: Patricio (4); Cancelo (6), Dias (5), Pereira (7), Mendes (6); Pereira (7), Sanches (8), Moutinho (6); Silva (7), Ronaldo (6), Jota (5).
Bench: Felix (5), Palhinha (6), Silva (6), Neves (5), Fernandes (5).
Serbia: Rajkovic (6); Milenkovic (7), Veljkovicc (6), Pavlovic (7); Gugelj (5), Milenkovic-Savic (6), Gudelj (5), Kostic (7); Tadic (9); Lukic (7), Vlahovic (7).
Bench: Jovic (6), Radonjic (6), Spajic (6), Mitrovic (7).
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