At the end of the suspense, Serbia snatched its qualification for the World Cup-2022 in Qatar by winning 2-1 in the last moments on Sunday in Lisbon against Portugal, which will have to go through the play-offs to participate in the World Cup.
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A goal from the Portuguese signed Renato Sanches from the start (2nd) set the tone for this shock but was not enough, the Serbs gluing back on a realization of their captain Dusan Tadic (33rd) before Alexandar Mitrovic gave the advantage to the formation of the Balkans at the very end of the game (89th).
The Portuguese, European champions in 2016, finish second in their pool with 17 points, three lengths behind their evening opponent, thrilled at the final whistle. They will have to inflict on themselves the perilous exercise of dams as on the road to the World-2010 and the World-2014.
The duel between the “Seleçao” and the “White Eagles” lasted throughout the qualifying campaign, the two teams engaging in a panting crossover at the top of the standings, far ahead of the other teams, Serbia having finally the last word at the end of the suspense.
Early goal
And it was not necessary to arrive late at the Estadio da Luz, with no capacity limit and sold out with more than 58,000 spectators present, to see Portugal open the scoring.
Bernardo Silva, just recovered from muscle problems, intercepted the ball in the feet of Nemanja Gudelj at the entrance to the penalty area before passing to Renato Sanches. The Lille midfielder then sank in full axis before unleashing, unopposed, an unstoppable strike for Serbian goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic (2nd, 1-0).
After this goal, the Portuguese played it safe by regrouping behind, leaving the initiative to their opponent. But this did not prevent the Serbs from obtaining opportunities, like a pivot strike from Dusan Vlahovic finding the right post of Rui Patricio (12th).
And by dint of suffering, the men of Fernando Santos were logically punished. Dusan Tadic received a cross from the left, erased Joao Moutinho from 18 meters before shooting on goal, Rui Patricio missing his intervention by releasing the ball in his net (33rd, 1-1).
The Portuguese tried to react but Moutinho’s strike in the box was countered in extremis after a missed exit from Rajkovic (42nd).
Without mastery
When the locker room returned, the match resumed at a low pace. It was not until the 62nd minute before an opportunity was seen, the work of a very restless Renato Sanches, but the shot from the player trained at Benfica Lisbon was well captured.
Portugal was satisfied with a few forays into the Serbian camp by showing itself again insufficient collectively and without control despite the quality of the players who make up its selection.
And he was punished without it surprising anyone, Serbia concretizing its domination of a head of Aleksandar Mitrovic free of any marking on a center of Tadic (1-2, 89th).
Another disappointment of the evening, Cristiano Ronaldo failed to score the 800th goal of his career. Very lonely, his counter remained stuck at 798 units.
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