Portugal qualified for Qatar 2022 after defeating Macedonia 2:0 in the final play-off tonight in Porto.

photo by UEFA: Fernandes scores

After the stunning elimination of Italy last Thursday Macedonia had no strength for another miracle. The Portuguese players proved on the field that they are more experienced and better with the ball, and at the end celebrated with a clean sheet.

Coach Milevski brought back in the starting line-up Elmas and Kostadinov, who were suspended against Italy, and also change the formation to 4-4-2 making two changes by benching Churlinov and Nikolov.

In the 13th and 14th minute back to back chances for the hosts. First Fernandes headed over the crossbar, while later Ronaldo misses by inches as his shot from left went just next to the bar.

In the 32nd minute captain Ristovski made a clumsy attempt to send backwards a long pass that got intercepted by Fernandes, who then played with Ronaldo and the action ended with the later serving Fernandes who broke the dead lock.

The Lynx could not wake up before half-time with Portugal controlling the game play. After the break Macedonia tried to play more offensively, but still the home goal seemed unreachable.

One such attack in the 65th minute ended with Bardhi losing the ball to Pepe who launched his teammates into a quick counter attack that ended with Fernandes scoring a brace.

Macedonia could not get back in game after that goal and therefore ended the World Cup dream. Still, reaching the play-offs for the first time with beating Germany and European champions Italy on the way will be remembered a great success by the Lynx.

Match report

Facts about the match:

• 40th appearance for Darko Velkovski
• 10th appearance for Milan Ristovski
• 10th match as captain for Stefan Ristovski
• 3rd match against Portugal without a goal scored