Porto (AP) – The superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski have qualified for the World Cup in Qatar with Portugal and Poland.
The Portuguese defeated North Macedonia 2-0 (1-0) at home in Porto on Tuesday evening. Bayern Munich’s star striker Lewandowski led Poland to a well-deserved 2-0 (0-0) win against Sweden in their home town of Chorzow. While the two veterans made it to the finals in the desert nation, Sweden’s icon Zlatan Ibrahimovic will miss the tournament.
Bruno Fernandes (32nd/65th minute) scored the decisive goals for Portugal and secured the eighth participation in a World Cup for the 2016 European champions. The North Macedonians, who had sensationally won 1-0 against European champions Italy in the playoff semifinals, missed out on qualifying for the first time in front of 48,010 spectators.
From the bench, 40-year-old Ibrahimovic had to watch as Lewandowski (49′) and Piotr Zielinski (72′) made everything clear for the Poles. The eccentric professional only came on in the 79th minute and was unable to do anything.
Sweden is out
Poland managed to get their ticket to the World Cup for the ninth time. As in 2010 and 2014, Sweden is not there. The Poles lacked penetrating power in the first half, but led by 33-year-old Lewandowski, that changed after the break. The Swedes were unable to capitalize on their few chances in the first half.
Meanwhile, Russia’s war of aggression means Ukraine won’t meet Scotland in the semi-finals until June, with the winners meeting Wales. In addition to the German selection in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Croatia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia and Spain had also previously qualified. The preliminary round groups for the World Cup finals, which begin in Qatar on November 21, will be drawn on Friday.
Meanwhile, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, Cameroon and Senegal are the five African participants in Qatar. All national teams prevailed in their continent’s playoff second leg. In the repeat of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations final, Senegal won 3-1 against Egypt in a dramatic penalty shoot-out and are at the World Cup for the third time. After 120 minutes it was 1-0 for the African champions in the capital Dakar. The team around Liverpool star Sadio Mané had lost the first leg 0-1 against the Egyptians around his Premier League team-mate Mohamed Salah.
Ghana with us
Ghana qualified for the World Cup for the fourth time. A 1-1 draw against favored Nigeria was enough for the four-time African champions. The first leg ended 0-0. Cameroon only beat Algeria in dramatic fashion 2-1 after extra time. Algeria had won the first leg 1-0. After the 1-1 draw in the first leg, Morocco clearly prevailed 4-1 against Congo in their second meeting. Tunisia succumbed to a goalless draw against Mali after 1-0 in the first leg.
The United Arab Emirates can continue to hope for the second participation in the World Cup after 1990. The team from the desert state secured third place in Asia Group A with a 1-0 (0-0) win over South Korea, who had already qualified for the World Cup, in Dubai and will play a playoff game against Australia on June 7th Third in Group B. However, the winner of this duel would still have to beat fifth-placed South America on 14 June to secure a ticket to Qatar.
In addition to the hosts Qatar and South Korea, the teams from Iran, Japan and Saudi Arabia are sure to be at the World Cup from Asia.