Cristiano Ronaldo has spoken of his pride after Portugal qualified for the World Cup on Tuesday.
After finishing second in their qualifying group to Serbia, Portugal were forced to go through the play-off route to book their tickets to Qatar in November. They overcame Turkey 3-1 on Thursday thanks to goals from Otavio, Diogo Jota and Matheus Nunes to set up a winner-takes-all final against North Macedonia.
The minnows had shocked Italy in their own semi-final, dealing them their first-ever World Cup qualifying defeat on home soil after scoring in the final minutes to advance. However, the fairytale came to an end in Porto.
It was a horror pass from defender Darko Velkovski that gave the ball away in the 32nd minute and allowed Bruno Fernandes to play a lovely one-two with his Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo before tucking away. Fernandes then doubled his country's lead and secured their place in the finals with a wonderful volley in the second-half.
Ronaldo took to Instagram after the match, posting a picture of the squad with the message: "Goal achieved, we're at the Qatar World Cup, we're in our rightful place! Thank you to all the Portuguese for the tireless support! Força Portugal!"
United right-back Diogo Dalot, who wasn't involved in the match despite being in the squad, was the first to react to Portugal's win on social media. Translated from his native tongue, he wrote: "That ORGULHO belong to this family! Qatar, here we go #WorldCup Thank you to all Portuguese."
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