An insatiable competitor, Cristiano Ronaldo will try to break the last barrier that separates him from the 2022 World Cup, the surprising North Macedonia, which plays against Portugal in Porto this Tuesday (2:45 p.m.) for a World Cup place.
Source: AFP
If the Euro 2016 champions win, they will play their 12th consecutive international tournament, the tenth for ‘CR7’.
The Qatar World Cup (November 21-December 18) would then allow him to enter the exclusive club of footballers who have played six World Cup finals.
Winners in Turkey (3-1) last week in the semifinals of these play-offs without needing the five-time Ballon d’Or, the Portuguese will have to seal their ticket to the World Cup against the unexpected North Macedonia.
All forecasts pointed to an attractive Portugal-Italy, the last two European champions, to fight for that ticket, but the Italians fell at home for the 67th team in the FIFA ranking (1-0).
As a consequence, Italy will not be in the World Cup for the second time in a row: a cataclysm for the transalpines who had never suffered such a debacle in the history of their national team.
– “Respect for Macedonia” –
“We will have as much respect for (North) Macedonia as we would for Italy. The finals are very difficult, they are games that you have to win without thinking that everything is already done”, said the Portuguese coach Fernando Santos at a press conference after beating the Turks.
The small Balkan nation has never played in a World Cup, but has come a long way in recent years.
Macedonia played its first major tournament at Euro 2020 and has arguments to shake the ogre Cristiano Ronaldo.
In particular, having beaten great teams recently. In March 2021, he gave the surprise by beating Germany (2-1) in the qualifying phase for the World Cup. The Mannschaft had not suffered a setback in World Cup qualifying since 2001.
The incredible victory against the Italians was a reminder that the Macedonian team knows how to be solid and exploit rare chances.
Since the retirement of striker Goran Pandev after Euro 2020, the team has, however, only the young Napoli midfielder Eljif Elmas (22 years old) as a renowned player.
“It could be one of the toughest and most exciting games for us,” Elmas said on Sunday, assuring that “we will have 90 minutes to fulfill our childhood dream, not only ours, but that of the entire country.”
“You just have to realize that we cannot let this opportunity pass us by,” he added.
– “Very aggressive team” –
Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates are therefore warned and are suspicious of their opponent despite their apparent superiority.
“We know it is a very aggressive team, which is not going to leave many spaces (…) we do not expect an easy game,” midfielder Bernardo Silva stressed at a press conference on Sunday.
But to save the Macedonian trap, Portugal has an element that the current Italian and German generations do not have: an outstanding striker like Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese star faces North Macedonia as the world’s best national team scorer (115) and as the holder of the record for goals in football history (807).
And although he has not scored in his last three meetings with Portugal, the Portuguese star is no less fearsome for that.
And it is that as his former coach Carlo Ancelotti said at Real Madrid: “There is only one player more dangerous than Cristiano Ronaldo, it is the Cristiano Ronaldo who did not score in the previous game”.
