Lisbon: Serbia gave Portugal’s World Cup dream a major setback with a 2-1 win over them during the World Cup qualifiers, Cristiano Ronaldo and co will have to play playoffs in March 2022 to try and reach Qatar. Spain qualified for the finals by defeating Sweden 1-0.
Aleksandar Mitrovic scored a 90th-minute header to lift Serbia and helped them qualify for the main event. Renato Sanches gave Portugal an early lead, but Serbian captain Dusan Tadic scored the equalizer and later a downward header from Mitrovic handed Portugal their biggest upset. Whereas, a late goal from Alvaro Morata handed Spain their seat in World Cup 2022.
Croatia clinched an automatic berth in the FIFA World Cup 2022 finals with a late own goal from Fedor Kudryashov to give them a 1-0 home win over Russia. Germany defeated Armenia by 4-1 during their final qualifiers.
Croatia dominated the entire match playing in the rain and waterlogged pitch, along with a string of good saves by the Russian goalkeeper Matvei Safonov, kept from scoring before Kudryashov’s clumsy 80th-minute own goal guided the last edition’s semi-finalists to the victory.
