Qatar World Cup 2022 play-offs: North Macedonia warn Ronaldo's Portugal after beating Italy

After booting European champions Italy out of their second successive World Cup campaign, North Macedonia is gearing up to face Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal in Porto on Tuesday evening for a place in this year's showpiece event in Qatar.

Blagoja Milevski's side defeated the Azzurri 1-0 thanks to a stunning late strike from Aleksandar Trajkovski, and now the team hope to reach their maiden World Cup tournament.

Following their stunning win over Italy, North Macedonia players celebrated together full-time in the dressing room,  joyously throwing their arms around in Palermo.

North Macedonia's only appearance at a major tournament since the break up of Yugoslavia came last summer, failing to win a single point at Euro 2020.

Yet skipper Stefan Ristovski believes that his team can qualify for Qatar and has warned that North Macedonia will do everything possible to beat Portugal.

"I am overjoyed with the victory, and I expect a great welcome on my return to North Macedonia," he said. "Can we beat Portugal? Yes, we will win. We will do everything to win, and we will do it," the captain said.

Also read: Ronaldo sends strong message after Portugal beat Turkey in play-offs

Meanwhile, manager Milevski added, "I am very happy for Trajkovski with his goal. The game was prepared in this way, we know that Italy is a great team with several champions, but we played as we should. We know our strengths. Before the game, I told the guys to have fun, and they did just that."

Meanwhile, Ronaldo's Portugal progressed after a 3-1 win against Turkey on Thursday evening. Burak Yilmaz had the chance to score a late equaliser when the score was 2-1, but the veteran Lille striker fired his penalty over the crossbar.

"These games are finals. Finals are always complicated. We won the first one, and now we have to win the second. We have to focus on North Macedonia, which will be a difficult game for sure. If they managed to beat Italy, that means it's going to be very difficult," said Portugal manager Fernando Santos.

Italy, meanwhile, was left devastated following the loss against North Macedonia. Roberto Mancini's side looked certain to qualify for Qatar after beating England in the final of Euro 2020 last July, yet their campaign collapsed in the autumn - winning just one of their final five qualifiers. They also failed to win the Nations League finals.

"This summer, I had my greatest joy, and today is the biggest disappointment. It's hard to speak. I'm really sorry for the players. It's a team that has played very well and who won the Euros last summer by deserving it," Mancini said at full-time.

"That's football. When you lose, you have to suffer and remain silent. There is nothing to do. It's difficult to comment on a match where we shot perhaps 40 times on goal [32 times] without scoring and suffered a goal in the 92nd minute. That's how it is," the Italian manager added.

"The players have a great future. They are strong and have a future with the national team. It's a difficult moment, and it will be in the next few days. It's the law of football," Mancini concluded.

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