North Macedonia have been offered an extra incentive to beat Portugal and qualify for the World Cup for the first time.
Portugal will not be underestimating their opponents at the Estadio do Dragao on Tuesday evening after North Macedonia stunned Italy with a dramatic late winner in the play-off semi-final last week. The underdogs have never played at a World Cup before, but after reaching Euro 2020, their Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski has declared he will pay the squad £421,000 (€500,000) if they overcome Portugal in the play-off final.
Aleksandar Trajkovski was the hero in Palermo on Thursday, firing in a 92nd-minute winner to down European champions Italy 1-0. North Macedonia will need similarly heroic performances to get past Portugal, who beat Turkey 3-1 to move one game away from Qatar 2022.
Cristiano Ronaldo will be standing in their way in Porto and he has already ramped up the atmosphere ahead of kick-off on home territory. “I urge the fans. I want hell breaking loose at Dragao,” the Manchester United veteran told a press conference on Monday.
“I went to bed last night thinking that I want the stadium to shut down the music for our national anthem and let the fans sing it a cappella to show our passion, our strength and union around the objective of reaching the World Cup. If our fans show up the way they can, we will win on Tuesday.”
Ronaldo is hoping to play at his fifth World Cup when the Qatar tournament kicks off in November and he is supremely confident about beating North Macedonia, who are ranked 67th in the world by FIFA – 59 places below Portugal. “Tomorrow is a final and we are prepared,” the 37-year-old said. “Favourite? I don't quite understand that, but I always consider myself a favourite, home or away,' Ronaldo told SportTV.
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“'We already know that if we win, we're going to go to the World Cup, if we lose, we're out. We have a responsibility to be positive and win the game. Macedonia surprised and did so in many games, but I think tomorrow it will not surprise us. Portugal will be better and we will go to the World Cup.”
North Macedonia may have lost all three of their games at Euro 2020 last summer, but Italy was not their first major scalp, having beaten Germany 2-1 in World Cup qualifying in March 2021. Manager Blagoja Milevski, who took charge after the Euros, has only lost one of his eight games in charge.
Fernando Santos, who has been in the Portugal hot seat since 2014, has warned his side not to be complacent. "If we think that, theoretically, the Macedonians are weaker, we are on the wrong track, it's the worst possible scenario," he said. "We have to face North Macedonia as we would have faced Italy."
