Recommended bets
[RECOMMENDED_BETS]
Portugal are unbeaten in 11 internationals at Estádio do Dragão, winning eight of them. In all, Portugal have only lost two of their last 24 competitive home games.
Portugal to win and both teams to score NO is 4/6.
Cristiano Ronaldo has scored a record-breaking 115 international goals against 46 different opponents. He is 7/4 to break the deadlock and 4/9 to add North Macedonia to this list.
Match preview
When the draw was made back in November, everyone was so excited for a heavyweight final showdown between Portugal and Italy.
Well, everyone apart from North Macedonia that is.
On Thursday night, Blagoja Milevski’s side travelled to Stadio Renzo Barbera as huge underdogs and this was show on the night.
Then, in stoppage time, the unthinkable happened; Aleksandar Trajkovski’s long-range shot found the bottom corner.
Cue absolute bedlam on the North Macedonia bench and in the away section as the Lynxes knock the European Champions out of the World Cup.
North Macedonia only made their major tournament debut last summer, beating Kosovo and then Georgia in the Euro 2020 play-offs.
In this campaign, they’ve already beaten Germany away and now Italy away so are one more victory away from a shock World Cup debut.
Simultaneously, Portugal took on Turkey and looked set for a very comfortable victory in Porto.
Otávio opened the scoring before a magnificent back-post header by Diogo Jota doubled their lead just before half time.
Turkey then halved the deficit before, ten minutes from the end, being awarded a penalty but Burak Yılmaz blazed over the bar.
As the visitors pushed for the equaliser, A Seleção broke up the other end and Matheus Nunes sealed the win with his first international goal.
Fernando Santos led Portugal to Euro 2016 and Nations League 2019 glory but surely will be sacked if they fail in these play-offs.
Os Navegadores haven’t failed to qualify for a World Cup since France ’98 and are now big favourites to maintain that statistic.
Will Portugal end North Macedonia’s fairytale at Estádio do Dragão?
Portugal team news
Both João Cancelo and Renato Sanches served one-match suspensions against Turkey, but both are back in contention for this one.
Cancelo will return at right-back, displacing Diogo Dalot, and this is a big boost for a depleted back-line.
Rúben Dias is out injured but 39 year old Pepe could be fit again so would partner 38 year old José Fonte at centre-back.
Danilo Pereira filled in at the back on Thursday but will drop out if Pepe is fit to start which it seems like he is.
The other big call Fernando Santos made last week was to drop Rui Patrício, who has 102 caps to his name, and start Diogo Costa for his competitive international debut.
At the other end of the pitch, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Jota are all likely to keep their places, supporting Cristiano Ronaldo.
North Macedonia team news
North Macedonia meanwhile had their best player, Elif Elmas, suspended for the win over Italy, as was fellow midfielder Tihomir Kostadinov.
Elmas will certainly return to a midfield unit that also contains Arijan Ademi and Enis Bardhi.
Bizarrely, left-back Ezgjan Alioski is the second-top scorer in this squad with 12; he now plays for Al-Ahli having left Leeds United last summer.
Their main marksman also plays in Saudi Arabia with Aleksandar Trajkovski scoring his 20th international goal in the last minute to knockout Italy.
Can this North Macedonia team pull off the most unlikely of World Cup qualifications?
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