The national teams from Portugal and Poland certified this Tuesday their qualification for the Qatar World Cup after eliminating, in the final playoff of the European zone, North Macedonia (2-0) and Sweden (1-0)respectively, to confirm their presence in this Friday’s draw.
Portugal he did not fail in Do Dragao and easily dominated the Macedonians, who gave the bell last Thursday eliminating Italy. However, their adventure could not be completed in Porto against a local team that came out overwhelming and found the prize before reaching half-time.
The first to warn was Cristiano Ronaldo, who pardoned with a cross shot that licked the base of the post. At 25 minutes Diogo Jota tried his luck with a chopped header, but it was not until half an hour later that his United teammate Bruno Fernandes established the 1-0 with a shot in great position.
Cristiano, who was the assistant for the 1-0, did not stop trying andn a first act that died without changes in the score. In the second half, Fernando Santos’s pupils continued with the same script and it didn’t take long for them to tie the match and -consequently- to their sixth consecutive participation in a World Cup.
Diogo Jota took an exquisite center to the heart of the area and Brunos Fernandes caught it first to sentence the attack. Portugal will not miss the World Cup, the fifth for Cristiano Ronaldo, who will go down in football history once again as the player with more World Cups equal to the German Matthaus, the Italian Buffon and the Mexicans Carbajal and Rafa Márquez.
For its part, Poland achieved the same result as Portugal but suffered much more to finish off their opponent. Czeslaw Michniewicz’s team, who arrived fresher at the event after not playing the first round due to the elimination of Russia, took the lead in the 50th minute with a penalty converted by his star: Robert Lewandowski.
The goal reassured the Poles who, somewhat confidently, put wings on the Swedes, who once again had Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the final ten minutes of the match. It was then that Sweden turned on Wojciech Szczesny’s goal but he couldn’t change his luck even from a set piece.
The opposite happened the Poles took advantage of the desperation of their rival and the spaces in defense to place the definitive 2-0 on the scoreboard in the boots of Piotr Zielinski, who took advantage of an error by Marcus Danielson in the clearance. The goal sank the Nordics, who will not be in Qatar after being quarterfinalists in the last World Cup.
