Lisbon: Spain, Serbia, and Croatia have qualified for next year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar but Sweden, Portugal, and Russia will have to wait. Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal were stunned by Aleksandr Mitrovic’s 90th-minute header as Serbia went straight into the World Cup after registering a 2-1 win in the match in Lisbon.
Portugal needed only a draw to qualify but Mitrovic’s goal dashed their hopes. Serbia topped Group A with this win. Portugal still has a chance to qualify but to make it to the top four teams in the playoffs in March. For Portugal, Renato Sanchez had put them in a strong position with a goal in the second minute but Dusan Tadych managed to equalize for Serbia in the 33rd minute.
The spectators and the Portuguese players were stunned by Mitrovic’s header. These included Ronaldo, who sat on the field after the last whistle. In another Group A match, Ireland beat Luxembourg 3-0. Spain needed only a draw in their final match against Sweden to qualify but they registered a 1–0 win in Group B with a goal from substitute Alvaro Morata in the 86th minute.
With this, Sweden’s star Jlatan Ibrahimovic’s hopes of playing in another World Cup have been pinned on the playoffs. In Group B itself, the match between Greece and Kosovo ended in a 1-1 draw. Both these teams were already out of the race to qualify. Croatia registered a 1-0 win with Russian defender Fedor Kudryashov’s suicide goal in the 81st minute. With this win, Croatia finished on top of Group H. Russia will also now play in the playoffs which will start from March 24 next year.
Slovakia, third in the group, registered a 6–0 win over Malta, which included a hat-trick from Ondrej Duda. In another match, Slovenia beat Cyprus 2–1. Germany had already secured their place in the World Cup from Group J but continued their winning campaign by beating Armenia 4–1.
