(Video) Serbia was hungry for the World Cup and did not lose face to the game against a Portuguese team well below expectations.
Serbia qualified for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar by winning in extremis (2-1) against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, who will play the play-off, this Sunday in Lisbon on the last day of the European qualifiers.
The Portuguese team had taken the lead in the second minute with a goal from Renato Sanchez, but Serbia turned the score around thanks to Dusan Tadic (35) and a World Cup header from Aleksandar Mitrovic (90).
Everything seemed to be working for the locals when Renato Sanches took advantage of a slip by Nemanja Gudelj in the front of the area to score with a low shot.
But Serbia was hungry for the World Cup and did not lose face to the game against a Portuguese team well below expectations.
In front of 58,000 spectators at the Estadio da Luz, Ronaldo and his teammates did not meet their goal: to retain the first place in Group A in the European area, synonymous with traveling directly to the World Cup next year, for which it was worth drawing them.
The European champion in 2016 finishes second and will have to go through a complicated play-off -two rounds to a single match- to access the World Cup, as they did in 2010 and 2014.
After his early goal, Portugal opted for caution, regrouping behind, leaving the initiative to the Balkan team.
And the Serbs equalized thanks to their captain Tadic, who shot with power with his left foot and scored with the collaboration of goalkeeper Rui Patricio, who missed the ball.
Lack of ambition
After the break the game slowed down. We had to wait until the 62nd minute to see a chance, from Renato Sanches, but the Lille footballer’s shot was safe.
The local team, technically superior, did not work as a group, content with some forays into the rival field.
His lack of ambition was punished with the header of Mitrovic, free of mark, in a good center of Tadic.
Ronaldo abronó to his teammates after the defensive error. The Portuguese soccer legend would have reached 800 goals as a professional with a double. But it was not an evening that you will remember.
The play-off will remain, with the good memories of 2014, when his four goals in the tie against Sweden led his team to the World Cup in Brazil.
Present in all the major international competitions since Euro 2000, Portugal will have to wait to secure the eighth World Cup in its history. (D)
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