Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo was reduced to tears as Serbia edged Portugal 2-1 on their home soil to clinch automatic qualification for next year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Portugal went into the tie needing just a point to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar and took the lead inside two minutes.
Renato Sanches burst through on goal after Bernardo Silva controversially robbed the opposition of the ball, before the Lille man smashed home.
But Serbia refused to lie down and they were level when former Southampton man Dusan Tadic equalised for the visitors before half-time.
There was a nervy, uneasy atmosphere building inside the ground with just 15 minutes to play as Serbia applied the pressure.
Just one goal would be enough to see them leapfrog Portugal into the automatic spots and their persistence paid off in the 90th minute.
Mitrovic, who missed the all important penalty as Serbia lost to Scotland in the Euro 2020 play-off final on penalties a year ago, rose highest at the back post to power the ball past Rui Patricio.
Jubilant scenes then following as the entire Serbia team and bench sprinted towards the corner flag.
The cameras then panned to Ronaldo, who was throwing his arms around in frustration.
Portugal will now slug it out in the playoffs along with Sweden, Wales, Switzerland or Italy, Finland or Ukraine, Scotland, one of Turkey, Norway or the Netherlands, as well as Russia, Poland or England, and North Macedonia or Romania.
25 Comments
You see who is Serbia to Portugals, with the array of Portugal stars, they lost, thank God it was not Genert Rohr that is coaching Portugal he would have died this night in the hands of Nigeria. Secondly, it was the same person that made serbia not to qualify for euro 2020 that scored the winning goal for them, if that one too were to be a Nigerian is either Nigerians kill him or is not playing for Nigeria again
Another meaningless comparison. Half of the Serbian team is from the team that won the u20 WC in 2019 so they are not really a walk over. If you followed portugal’s group you will understand that it was a bottle neck btw Portugal and Serbia all throught and you can’t compare the free flowing football that both teams played to the type of football we played since the qualifiers started. Truth be told the last time we played well was the match against Camerron at the 2019 Afcon..
Sorry I meant 2015 U20 worldcup not 2019…
Spot on! Actually that was the last time we played a brand of football that appeals to the eyes. Since then it has been kick and follow
Okay let me help you.. The Serbian coach dropped his top striker in Europe for a retiree playing in Saudi Arabia.. The Serbia coach dropped players playing in top 5 leagues for inactive ones..
Bring up this argument when your Dumbo Roar defeats any of the other Africa to 7 teams..
It is advisable for you guys to stop advertising valueless commodity. If Nigeria fires Roar aka Mr. DW sports- today,let’s see which country is going to hire him.The more reason why he is hanging on even when it is obvious that he is not respected by his employer.
Tell them.. some Rohr’s supporters won’t let us rest here. Whoever is happy with SE’s performance in the last ten games isn’t a friend of the team. Critisizing the team doesn’t mean we hate them. Nigeria has one of the easiest groups by far, compared to CIV, Ghana or even Tunisia. How come it is this difficult for the team to fly off the block and play the kind of football that will give us peace of mind. CAR came here to beat us. We had to rely on penalties to beat Liberia. Now, CV is breathing down our neck, leading to a nervy end in this series. Nothing stops this team from winning the first four matches, a feat that would have seen them qualify and use the last two as practise games to scout for more players and try more formations.
My confidence in the team is so low now that I can’t even say we are good to go in the final phase. The irony of it all is that this coach has the best collection of young , skillful , vibrant players that are even better than those of some African countries who have secured the ticket for the final phase. What then is the problem?
I’m so concerned about GR’s tactical competence. Why keep Ejuke and Chukwueze on the bench in a match we needed to create chances, keep Liberia busy at the back to restrict their foray into our territory and relieve Osimhen of having to fall deep to retrieve the ball due poor supply from the midfield. What exactly is Moses Simeon doing in the first 11? A lot of questions begging for answer. Our build up has been so slow, transition looks disjointed and the way Osimhen blew some glaring chances makes it look like we didn’t need certain goals. I saw it against CAR in Nigeria and Cameroon. I also saw it Liberia in the last match. Genot Rohr’s unserious, laud back attitude is rubbing off on SE. This team, honestly, needs redemption!
I’ve come to the realization that Rohr is scared of some players and always finds it difficult to bench them no matter their calamities.
Moses Simon
Leon Balogun
Ekong
These aforementioned players need to be benched sometimes to have them sit up. I believe Awaziem should be starting sometimes. Collins is not better than Zaidu and why Rohr fields this guy ahead of Zaidu is still a mystery. Zaidu plays at a better club and his last champions league game against AC Milan was one of his best performances in the competition. Jamie had not been able to even secure a move to a decent top 5 league club but the same Rohr will tell certain players to move to better clubs to be able to get a call up. I used to support Rohr before but now I’m just not happy with the last few games we’ve played..
Good submission!
Weldone!
Lols @Papafem. I’m glad many people are seeing what I’m seeing.
Rohr is not a coach. The trajectory of his output over the past 4 years is a downward curve.
He lacks any mettle. Hence each starting lineup is probably determined by either Pinnick or one or more of his cronies per which player has paid their dues.
For your information, Ghana black stars captain and goal scorer, Didi Ayew (Abedi Pele’s son) plays his club soccer in Qatar (neighboring country to Saudi Arabia, and yet Ayew provided a great free kick goal for Ghana in the match against Ethiopia; and scored the penalty goal against South Africa in Cape Coast yesterday. All this talk about Ighalo playing his club soccer in Saudi Arabia is not necessary. If Ghana can still use Didi Ayew who is in his mid-thirties age wise and actually won his 100th cap against South Africa, there is nothing wrong in the recall of Odion Ighalo to represent Nigeria if the coach so desires. Thanks
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Larry shut ur mouth ok let me ask u can u kick a ball . Or let me say can u play a penalty. I can bet u 5out of 5 penalty u play to me u will only score 1 if not none .
Larry be quiet ur mouth ok let me ask u can u kick a ball . Or let me say can u play a penalty. I can bet u 5out of 5 penalty u play to me u will only score 1 if not none .
@Den Larry is not a professional footballer so he doesn’t have to kick a ball. Find a better argument to defend your favourite
Nigerians are their biggest enemies conciously or unconsciously
They only cares about their favourite players invitation pretending to be supportive of the team while other who hammer the truth are seen as haters
That means noise has finally been accepted to have its say while objectivity will continue showing the way.
“Ronaldo In Tears As Serbia Clinch 2022 World Cup Ticket After Shock Win Against Portugal”
@ Bolade Anjorin, that’s an epic from behind. I even thought I was reading a different write-up till I saw Portugal lost to Serbia on Serbia home soil. My adivser to Ronaldo is to stop crying and better prepare for the playoffs. Portugal is one of the countries that add colors to the World cup and must leave up to its relevance by avoiding offsides goals.
Correction; Not Serbia but Portugal’s home soil
For your information, Ghana black stars captain and goal scorer, Didi Ayew (Abedi Pele’s son) plays his club soccer in Qatar (neighboring country to Saudi Arabia, and yet Ayew provided a great free kick goal for Ghana in the match against Ethiopia; and scored the penalty goal against South Africa in Cape Coast yesterday. All this talk about Ighalo playing his club soccer in Saudi Arabia is not necessary. If Ghana can still use Didi Ayew who is in his mid-thirties age wise and actually won his 100th cap against South Africa, there is nothing wrong in the recall of Odion Ighalo to represent Nigeria if the coach so desires. Thanks
@Diran does Ghana has options in Ayew’s position in their national team like Nigeria do in Ighalo’s position? Answer
It’s about the returning player, it’s about the position where they play. They players we’re dropping in their preference, that’s the point if you lack basic comprehension
@Diran the Reason Ghana is still using Ayew is because they do not have better options. Believe me if Ghana had the type of options we have up top they would not call a player who voluntarily retired. We may live to regreat this nonsense Rohr and Pinnick pulled fingers crossed we don’t. This would have been a good game to be able to call upon most of our talented weapons from Europe. I.e. Lookman, Awoniyi, Dennis and co. thes three would have been a better option than. Ighalo/Onuachu, Musa and Simon to have on th ebench with the already loaded talents. Not just that in training the players would know no ones place in the starting XI is guaranteed. which would mean everybody will work real hard. The whole atmosphere in the camp is wrong and you can see it, in the Lethargic displays of the team.
Cape Verde is no walk in the park. I hope Rohr will learn from this, I am sure this game will give him a wake up call no matter the outcome. Because it will make him realise no time for games and mediocre calls like Pinnick seems to be making lately
@Chinenye
May your fountain of reasoning never dries. Only God knows what could have happened, had Nigerian also have a big playing nation as Ghana has in South African.
If Oga Rohr can not have a decent style of play in his over 5 years on the bench of SE , and had to panic to recall a retiring player from Saudi because of a country that its population is not only up to any state in Nigeria, but did not have a single stadium as Liberia , then it speaks volumes of the kind of clueless Coach.
Though , many of us that are criticizing Oga Rohr (aka Belmadi’s trainee ) are not objective; the fraudulent NFF that hired him in the first place never expected him to deliver, but their pocket; otherwise, would any sensible organization is the shoes of NFF hired a coach that has never won a tea cup in his career perform magic with super eagle ?
Rohr can only give what he has , NFF is not only helping him with backlog of unpaid salaries, so if he decides to call up players that have enough dollars to pay for his way ; he would not think twice
Siasia is way better than Rohr, only that he is known to take bribes from players. He plays attacking brand of football. Amunike is way better in terms of team organization and cohesion.
Why has the NFF never allowed the captain of the first set of U17 to win world to coach the U17? Rather they keep recycling Many Garba
I have no problem with Ighalo coming back to the team. Absolutely no problem! It takes more than talents and skills to win certain matches. There is a need for experience in the team.. As a matter of fact, I see Ighalo finishing off some chances Osimhen blew off in the last matches we played with relative ease. What actually killed us in USA 94 against Italu, as talented and skillful as that team was, was inexperience. Just two minutes to regulation time, in a game we were leading by a goal to nil, we were still kicking the ball to the crowd as if goals couldnt come through throw ins. The same thing would have played up in 2013 when we were Leading CIV by 2 to 1 in the quarter finals of AFCON. But experienced players like Mikel and Emenike came to the rescue by holding on to the ball in the touchline or around corner flags just to run dowm the clock instead of kicking it out to the spectators. I wouldn’t even mind the coach bringing back Victor Moses to the team as long as they all have something different to offer. A lot of players have come out of retirement to help their countries. Roger Miller did it in 1990 and 1994 FIFA WC, Ibrahimovic did it recently too with Sweden. My major problem is this coach who doesn’t know how to build even with the good materials at his possession. Rohr has over stayed his welcome. He does not seem to have any thing to offer this team again. Even if we qualify for the WC, we won’t go far with him at the helm of affairs. He is so clueless now.
When Nigerians persisted in using this Golf-looking effigy called Rhor, my interest for watching any Continental and international matches was thrown into dustbin.
I still insist that those who are keeping this inexperienced and “good for nothing” coach never meant well for Nigeria.