The dust was yet to settle on Portugal’s costly defeat against Serbia in Lisbon last night and the inquest had already begun. Under-fire Seleção coach Fernando Santos accepted responsibility for the result but remains confident he can guide the team to Qatar (“my team will be at the World Cup in Qatar, that is a guarantee”).

Bernardo Silva (“it was an awful performance”) and João Palhinha (“the dressing room is in bits”), however, did not hold back in assessing a nightmare night for Portugal at the Estádio da Luz.

PortuGOAL rounds up the match reaction. 

Portugal 1-2 Serbia

It had been coming. After Renato Sanches’ opener following a silly error by the Serbian backline, the visitors took control and left a sold out crowd at the Estádio da Luz in shock as Alexander Mitrovic’s late header dumped Portugal into the nightmare of World Cup qualification playoffs yet again.

Once again, Portugal were second best throughout the match and relied on infrequent counterattacks which never yielded the goal they needed to help achieve the objective of qualification. 

It’s winner takes all at Estádio da Luz on Sunday as Portugal host Serbia in the final 2022 World Cup qualifier. Both nations are locked on 17 points in Group A with the Seleção ahead on goal difference.

One nation will secure automatic qualification with the other taking their chances in the playoffs. Let’s take a look at form, squads and potential starting line-ups before the vital match in Lisbon. 

Portugal won 1-0 in Cyprus to make it four straight wins in the 2023 UEFA European U21 Championship qualifiers. It was another tough road trip for the Esperanças, but theymade it four straight wins thanks to an early Gonçalo Ramos strike.

Rui Jorge was absent in Larnaca after testing positive for corona virus. Romeu Almeida stepped up to the plate with Gonçalo Inácio making his U21 debut, starting in central defence next to former Sporting CP teammate Eduardo Quaresma.